Formatting a partition in linux

Patrick

I made a 4gig 'Windows 95 Fat32' partition in Debian/Linux with cfdisk. I then formatted it in windows. Although I can use it in windows, when I try and mount it in linux, it says it's not a valid msdos partition and asks me to specify the fs. Anyone know how to fix this problem? I was think if I formatted it in linux as an msdos partition then linux would be happy?

logic1

You should be able to mount it with mount -t msdos /dev/<partition number /<mount point>

If it's after been formatted in windows then it should be a fat16 partition which can easily be accessed using the msdos fs type..

What command are you using and what version of linux?

.logic.

Patrick

Linux 2.2.19.
tried that command.

pizza:~# mount -t msdos /dev/hdd /personal
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdd,
or too many mounted file systems
pizza:~# df
Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hdd2 7692500 481132 6820588 7% /
/dev/hdd1 31077 1305 28168 4% /boot
/dev/hdd3 3842232 2378172 1268872 65% /home
pizza:~#

logic1

You could try:

/sbin/mkdosfs /dev/hdd

Then mount /dev/hdd /tmp/mnt -t vfat

.logic.

Patrick

/sbin/mkdosfs /dev/hdd

sorted it.
Thanks very much

moist

ERm... You had partitions on hdd1 hdd2 and hdd3
you then went and did '/sbin/mkdosfs /dev/hdd' (i.e. the full disk)
should you not have used another partition ?? hdd4 perhpas ??

Patrick

Well spotted
What I really did was '/sbin/mkdosfs /dev/hdd6' I just didn't bother mentioning it here, all I needed was the command unless I ran into problems after that.

Don't suppose you'd have answer to my other PPP question in the UNIX thread.