format windows hd's to linux format - linux-noob.com/forums

i had a windows 2003 server which i have recently converted to Fedora Core release 4

the install basically used the first hdd (as i told it to) and the remaining three hd's still had the original 'dynamic disc NTFS' format on them from Windows 2003 server.

I wanted to format all the other three hd's to Ext3 filesystem (for journalling) and to do so i had to first change the partition info from the SFS filesystem to LINUX

here's the output before i did anything

QUOTE

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 14 14593 117113850 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/hdb: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 14589 117186111 42 SFS

Disk /dev/hdc: 123.5 GB, 123522416640 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15017 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdc1 1 15017 120624021 42 SFS

Disk /dev/hdd: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdd1 1 14589 117186111 42 SFS

so above, as you can see,. /dev/hda1 is already in linux format (actually it's a LVM logical volume manager format which Fedora Core defaults to) and i want to change the other three hd's from SFS (dynamic disks in windows 2003 server) to Ext3 linux.

first off, i need to re-partition the hard disc's one by one, so i started with /dev/hdb

login as root and do this

CODE

fdisk /dev/hdb

you will now be given some info like this

QUOTE

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 14593.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help):

now type the letter 't' as follows:-

CODE

Command (m for help): t
Selected partition 1
Hex code (type L to list codes):

and now tell it what filesystem you want (83=linux)

CODE

Hex code (type L to list codes): 83
Changed system type of partition 1 to 83 (Linux)

finally you need to write those changes so do that with a simple 'w'

CODE

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

to verify that the changes are made as root do

CODE

fdisk -l

as you see below, /dev/hdb is now type 83=linux

QUOTE

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 14 14593 117113850 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/hdb: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 14589 117186111 83 Linux

Disk /dev/hdc: 123.5 GB, 123522416640 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15017 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdc1 1 15017 120624021 42 SFS

Disk /dev/hdd: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdd1 1 14589 117186111 42 SFS

ok, now that's all done, you need to format the hdd to your chosen filesystem, i chose ext3 and this is how i did it

CODE

mkfs.ext3 /dev/hdb1

it won't take long, and once done you'll see something like this scroll by,,

QUOTE

mke2fs 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
14663680 inodes, 29296527 blocks
1464826 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=29360128
895 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
16384 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872

Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 36 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.

and that's it, only two more hdd's to go !

thanks to znx and omegaevil for assistance with this, and below please see the 5 line version of this howto ;-)

QUOTE

fdisk /dev/hdb
t
83
w
mkfs.ext3 /dev/hdb1

cheers
anyweb