usb fat32 formated harddisc

[Chen]

Dear all,

I have a usb harddisc which formated in fat32. My linux os detected it, can execute, can read but cannot write on the hardisc. Why?

Hope someone can help.

Chen :confused:

[steve941]

the permessions are probably incorrect on the folder where the usb drive is mounted
open terminal, become root, run nautilus
goto usb drive directory (ex /media/usbdisk)
right click the folder, hit properties, click permissions
change the user and group to you then make sure all those read, write, executes are checked

[Chen]

Thank you for your attention. I enter permissions as your suggestion but when i try to change the user,group and 'write' portion. The message is 'could not be change because it is an read-only disk'. What should i do?

[Chen]

i'm sorry. i just found that it is ntfs formated but not fat32.

[steve941]

yeah there's only read-only access for ntfs...
ntfs is relatively useless on usb drives since ya don't need the journaling.. now you can disable ntfs journal but you should probably go with fat32 so that both OSs can read and write the usb drive

[Chen]

For now, the hardsisk is in the usb casing. is linux able format it with fat32? because windows will force me to format under ntfs. Pls provide the good way to do formating. TQ

[steve941]

yeah mkfs.vfat /dev/hdaX
and in windows, run cmd.exe - command prompt - its under all programs > accessories.
then
format /q /fs:fat32 [drive letter]

[Chen]

new problem come out. When i try to format with windows, the message is "the volumn is too big for fat32" ?
by the way, the harddisk size is 40G

[CrystalCowboy]

yeah mkfs.vfat /dev/hdaX

Add the -F flag:

mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdaX

From the man page:

-F FAT-size
Specifies the type of file allocation tables used (12, 16 or 32
bit). If nothing is specified, mkdosfs will automatically
select between 12 and 16 bit, whatever fits better for the
filesystem size. 32 bit FAT (FAT32 format) must (still) be
selected explicitly if you want it.


Since it is a USB disk, it will show up as /dev/sd** instead of /dev/hd**

[Chen]

hi, crytalcowboy, should i use shell konsole? i use shell konsole, It should me the message "bash: mkfs.vfat: command not found"

[Chen]

Hi, I have formated it into fat32, detected 38G. Yeh!! The steps are in (super user mode) shell konsole type mkfs dev/sda1 when it finished then type mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1. the usb harddisk was formated into fat32 and automounted on my fc4.
Thanks steve941 &CrystalCowboy.

[orkomedix]

Hello there...

I am afraigt, I am also still a newbie. My problem is quite a similar:
I have a 80GB external HD that is not formated and has no partitions.
fdisk -l /dev/sda
will give me
Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Disk /dev/sda doesn't contain a valid partition table

How can I divide this into two 40GB partitions to run mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdaX on them ??

[orkomedix]

I got it ! :p
Linux Partition HOWTO (http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/index.html) helped a lot ! If you have any trouble whatsoever with partitioning stuff, go there. ;)

____________________________
TUX for president !

[orkomedix]

There is something else: :confused:

I did get it done to divide the 80GB hard drive into two 40GB partitions (primary).
fdisk -l /dev/sda
gives me
Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 4864 39070048+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 4865 9729 39078112+ 83 Linux
I now wanted to label those partitions with
e2label /dev/sda1 mylabel
respectivly
tune2fs -L mylabel /dev/sda1
But what I got was: "Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda1
Couldn't find valid filesystem superblock." :eek:

What have I done wrong ?? Please help !

[orkomedix]

And even more trouble:
Now I really don't know what to do: I can work with the harddrive under Linux (it is FAT32, but 40GB though) but XP can't do anything with it. It does find it but wont show it anywhere. Anybody any Idea? Has this to do with the missing "Superblock" ??