Formating USB stick

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ayu
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Formating USB stick

Post by ayu »

I was going to format my USB stick, and since I haven't tried it in Linux before I thought I should. So...I did the following:

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root@clare:/home/cats# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xdaabdaab

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 9327 74919096 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 9328 9729 3229065 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 9328 9729 3229033+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 128 MB, 128450048 bytes
158 heads, 13 sectors/track, 122 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2054 * 512 = 1051648 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 122 125293+ 5 Extended

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root@clare:/home/cats# fdisk /dev/sdb

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Command (m for help): 
Selected partition 1


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Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
e
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-122, default 1):
Using default value 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-122, default 122):
Using default value 122

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

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.


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root@clare:/home/cats# mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb1
mkfs.vfat 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)
mkfs.vfat: Attempting to create a too large file system

This is where I get stuck. I tried with setting FAT-size to 16 to force it to FAT16, but then it said that I had to try more sectors per cluster, but the maximum was 128 and it wanted more :?

help? ^^
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G-Brain
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Re: Formating USB stick

Post by G-Brain »

Why the extended partition? Try primary and look up why.
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ayu
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Re: Formating USB stick

Post by ayu »

G-Brain wrote:Why the extended partition? Try primary and look up why.
meh...

*gets book*


EDIT:

oops... ^^

Solution: Use primary because with an extended partition, logical drives would have to be created inside of it. And the extended partitions information is stored in the master partition table.

gnarl
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