[GLLUG] Re: Formatting in Linux

[Jolyon Michael Vincent]

Matt Graham writes: 

> On Thursday 21 October 2004 12:45, after a long battle with technology, 
> Michael Harrington wrote:
>> I was wondering how [to] format large fat32 partitions(like 160 gb) in
>> linux. I get an error when trying the command 
>>
>> mkdosfs -I F32 /dev/hdx
> 
> "mkdosfs -F32 /dev/hdxy" , shirley?  You usually want to partition IDE, 
> SCSI, USB, and Firewire disks.  Anyway, there's a size limit of 64G for 
> FAT32 because something (number of sectors?  number of blocks?) is 
> stored in a signed 32-bit int in the filesystem itself.  ISTR a patch 
> for the Linux kernel that allowed it to use an unsigned int for this 
> value and so use 128G FAT32 filesystems.  They may have changed the 
> 32-bit thing in the latest versions of 'Doze, but I don't know whether 
> the mkdosfs maintainer has taken this change into account. 
> 
> So:  Partition the disk into multiple 64G partitions, or use a 64-bit 
> filesystem (ext2, ext3, ReiserFS, JFS, NTFS, ufs, or something.)  
> You'll have to make this decision based on the systems you need to use 
> this disk on.  If it's a Linux-only system, use ext3/Reiser and 
> fuggeddaboudit.  If it's dual-boot, multiple 64G partitions are your 
> best bet.  If this is an external USB/Firewire disk, multiple 
> partitions are also your best bet. 
> 
> -- 
>    He is a rhythmic movement of the penguins, is Tux.
>    --MegaHAL, trained on random gibberish
> There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
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> 
 

I remember this question! I think I asked it last year. There is even an 
answer posted in a thread somewhere. 

I realize that the installfests (although a wonderful thing) are designed to 
install linux, but I think that part of the install process should be 
backing up old data (for those of us migrating from a windows or other 
operating system).  Time should be allowed for this during meetings.