I believe the command would be something like mount t ext3 devsda1 mediaharddrive that would be assuming, of course, that youd already created a directory in media called harddrive and that the device was plugged in as sda1 it could be sda2 or sdb1 or sde1, etc. How to read and write a usb hard drive formatted as ext3 from. If you have a dualboot windows linux system, you probably know this problem. Format an external hard drive to fat32 using command prompt. So the external hard drive is already formatted as ext3. Jul 09, 2015 but easiest way is to use a windows based partition manager which can format a disk with any file format. Then, save your work typing w and q to exit the utility. Select the disks file system ext2, ext3, ntfs, fat32, etc.
Just because you dont see the option to format your hard drive to fat32 in windows user interface doesnt mean the ability is gone completely. Rightclick on the external hard disk and select format option from context menu. Now, with the ext23 drive attached to your computer i was using a 1tb usb drive with one of the 2 partitions being ext3, rightclick on the setup file and choose run as administrator. Its reliable and fast enough for a general use and some operations are supported on windows, thanks to ext2fsd an open source ext34 file system driver for windows 2kxpvistawin7. In order to format hard drive on linux, you need to follow these steps. How to format hard drive or memory stick into ext3 file system. Three ways to access linux partitions ext2 ext3 from windows on dualboot systems. For those working from linux this task can easily be accomplished via the linux flash drive restoration tutorial that follows. Any doubt or need help about fdisk utility, just type m. If you are planning to switch to linux from windows, you may need to format your internal or external hard drive as ext4 on windows operating system, so as to make them be recognized by linux successfully.
To find out the label of an external hard drive, open up a. Partition new disk using following command fdisk l grep disk fdisk devsdb format the new disk using mkfs. To use a linux partition ext you need to install a driver however i have only heard of windows drivers for ext2 partitions, which doesnt support journaling, so if the power went out your drives data would be potentially nuked if you were accessing it at that time. We can add a partition label by passing the l flag. However, to use it on windows you can hfs explorer read only. Whats the right filesystem for your portable backup drive. With a tiny mistake, you may lose data or wrongly format your drive in a way that can lead to data corruption. To format the newly created partition, issue the following command in the terminal prompt. Whenever a drive is formatted in linux, it reserves about 5% of the total space on the drive for the operating system to continue using the hard drive to operate, even if it get full. This post will teach you how to format usb to ext2, ext3 or ext4 in windows.
How to delete files from external ext3 formatted drive. How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux. Ask for advice on formatting an external drive in a linux forum, and the traditional answer is ext2. Easily format ext4 on windows 10, 8, 7freeware download. Ext2fsd, it allows you to access a partitionhard drive with ext filesystem on windows. How to partition and format storage devices in linux. Several people have said if you format a usb stick hard drive to ext3, you can then transfer recordings from the freesat box and play the files on the computer, but the freesat box will only read the usb drive if its formatted to ext3.
Format external hard drive to linux compatible file system. Im trying to decide which file system to use on my external usb drive. But easiest way is to use a windows based partition manager which can format a disk with any file format. Select a name that will help you identify this particular drive. Ext3 partitions are used mainly on linux based distributions, are not normally accessible by windows. How to format and mount second hard drive on linux geek. That entails having the linux installation on an external, usbattached hard disk drive which can boot with relative ease on any uefienabled pc driver compatibility notwithstanding. If your primary operating system is linux ext3 could be your filesystem. Since it is executed on the same software layer at the windows operating system core like all of the native file system drivers of windows for instance ntfs, fastfat, or cdfs for jolietiso cdroms, all applications can access directly to ext2 volumes. Plug the external usb device into the usb port on the computer. Windows only detects fat, fat32, ntfs, and exfat natively. Jul, 2016 now that we have a partition available, we can format it as an ext4 filesystem.
How to format and mount second hard drive on linux. Several people have said if you format a usb stickhard drive to ext3, you can then transfer recordings from the freesat box and play the files on the computer, but the freesat box will only read the usb drive if its formatted to ext3. For instance, if you have a 4gb thumb drive, you can have a partition on that device taking up the entire drive 4gb, two partitions that each take 2gb or 1 and 3. The feature still exists on your systems and the command prompt utility should help you find and use it to do the task. If you format your external hard drive to hfs, you can use it on mac and linux by removing journaling. To read a ext3 the drive has to be unmounted under linux first.
Jan 06, 2009 to read a ext3 the drive has to be unmounted under linux first. Whenever we attach a usb drive in ubuntu, it automatically mounted to the system. It installs a pure kernel mode file system driver ext2fs. Managing storage devices whether they are internal hard drives, ssds, pcie ssds, or external usb devices is always a tricky task. Hi, i just received a seagate external hard drive a friend was using in a nas nclu2. Select your drive in the lefthand sidebar and go to the erase tab. How to create ext2ext3 based linux partition from windows. There are two ways to create ext2 ext3 based linux partitions on a windows computer. Moreover, all the preparatory work has to be performed using a singleboot windows computer without ending up having a dual boot system. Making a portable full installation of ubuntu on a usb hdd. Three ways to access linux partitions ext2ext3 from windows on dualboot systems. Connect your external hard drive with your computer and open windows explorer to check if it can be recognized.
My external hdd is converted to ext3ext4 windows 10. Permanently mounting a secondary hard drive requires modifying the file system tab. It is well known that ext4 is the default file system for linux system. This is because external hard drives in linux unlike windows and mac do not automatically start up so that users can access files. Create an ext2ext3 linux partition on windows disk, usb flash.
How to format external hard drive to fat32 in windows. Once your computer reboots, the bootdisk will initialize and gparted will start up. The foxsat does not unmount the drive so linux is required to unmount the drive before windows can read it. How to create an external usb bootable linux hard drive. There is the commercial product paragon extfs for mac with which you can format even ext4 i use it from time to time to access ext3 external hdd and it works quite well from their website. That way if you ever lose the external drive or if it is stolen, your data cant ever be accessed by a third party. First, create the folder where the hard drive will load to. Go through the setup and you will eventually get the choice to assign a drive letter to the drivepartition. The file system tab lets linux know where every hard drive partition needs to go. Now, use one of the following commands as per the file system you want.
Now i want to format and use one partition continue reading linux format external usb hard disk partition. This is totally unnecessary for a usb external hard drive if you are only going be using it to store data and not to run an operating system. Format a linux disk as ext4 from the command line kevin. It lets you create, delete, and clone partitions in addition to formatting hard drives to chosen formats. Make sure you pass in the partition and not the entire disk. How to format external hard drive to ntfs in window1087. Linux reader is a popular and free software product, and it remains noncommercial freeware. I usually format my hard drive partitions to ext3 or 4 but wonder if this will cause conflicts with the windows and mac operating systems. Creating an ext2, or ext3, or ext4, or xfs filesystem. Format an exfat external hard drive to fat32 with easeus. Therefore, to format hard drive to linux file system on windows. Since it is an external drive, you might want to format with fat32 or ntfs, so you access the files when moving the disk around to different platforms.
How do i format my external hard drive to a very linux compatible file system. A partition on a hard drive is a sort of boundary on the device telling each filesystem what space it can occupy. If you will be using it only on those two machines and plan to be religious about properly unmounting the drive before disconnecting the usbpowering it off, then yes, ext4 is highly recommended ext4 will give you improved performance over ext3, particularly when trying to write multiple files at the same time or when creating a large file. This can take a bit of time, but it should give you an update on whats being written. Go through the setup and you will eventually get the choice to assign a drive letter to. Feb 28, 2011 whenever a drive is formatted in linux, it reserves about 5% of the total space on the drive for the operating system to continue using the hard drive to operate, even if it get full. You can format an external hard drive in ubuntu using the gnome partition editor. This can take a bit of time, but it should give you. How to format usb drive in linux command line tecadmin. This is a default file system for linux os including raspberry pi. If one is using linx for most part of their work, ntfs is a terrible choice to go for. Lets format the partition as traditional ext3 linux file system. As darnir said, gparted is a suitable tool for this.
How to format an external hard drive with pictures wikihow. The best filesystem for an external hard disk of 1tb with. Ext2fsd ext2fsd is a windows file system driver for the ext2, ext3, and ext4 file systems. Under the format menu, choose the file system you want to use. I have seen forums discussing the best way to format the drives to be compatible with all, but they all seem to conflict each other. You can have ext2fsd launch at every boot or only open it when you need it. How to format external hard drive for pc, mac and linux.
And i think there are programsdrivers for supporting ext4 too. Ext2 ifs for windows ext2 installable file system for. Now that we have a partition available, we can format it as an ext4 filesystem. How to mount an ext3 hard drive in windows 10 quora. For instance, users want to write data to and read data from, to do a clean installation of the windows system, to get rid of a virus or malware, to erase the data before giving the drive to someone else or throwing it away, or some other reasons. In this article, i will talk about some of the basics of storage devices on linux. Moreover, all the preparatory work has to be performed using a singleboot windows computer without ending up. Apr 16, 2008 ask for advice on formatting an external drive in a linux forum, and the traditional answer is ext2.
Youll be able to see the progress in the white box. The computer will boot so you can see the post screen. Linux format external usb hard disk partition nixcraft. How to partition and format drives on linux pi my life up. Ext2fsd is a windows file system driver for the ext2, ext3, and ext4 file systems. In our example, we created a partition table for linux. Okay, the hard disk partitioning and formatting is done now.
Replace ext3 with ext2 or ext4 if you wish to format in these filesystems. Rightclick the disk here take ext3 partition for exampleyou need to format and choose format partition. Nov 19, 2015 if you format your external hard drive to hfs, you can use it on mac and linux by removing journaling. For instance, if you have a 4gb thumb drive, you can have a partition on that device taking up the entire drive 4gb, two partitions that each take 2gb or 1 and 3, if you prefer, three of some variation of sizes, and so on. Or am i just better off formatting the external hard drive to ext3. Needed a replacement internal hard drive for a desktop computer right away, and by purchasing it at store, i over paid because a cheaper online purchase would have taken a few extra days, which i didnt have. We can not format any disk on linux systems which are already mounted. With linux reader pro, you can read files from even more file systems, get remote access through an ssh connection, create a virtual drive, export files via ftp. This hard disk was setup and formatted by friend under windows xp ntfs partition. People might need to format a hard drive or an external hard drive in windows 10 for various reasons. The ext23 drivers there are two options ext2fsd is the one i used to run in win7 with.
Notedisc partitioning and formatting process may result in loss of complete disk data. Lets check few free partition manager software which run on windows os still they can format any drive into ext2, ext3, ext4 and linux swap file system. Mar 20, 2020 why format hard drive to ext4 in windows. May 09, 2017 each hard drive, usb disk has a label on linux. Easeus partition master free is more than just a disk formatting tool. See the above section for more details on which one to pick. My external hdd is converted to ext3ext4 windows 10 forums. And rw speeds are nowhere close to what other filesystems can provide. Mar 09, 2017 managing storage devices whether they are internal hard drives, ssds, pcie ssds, or external usb devices is always a tricky task. That has created and saved new partition and it will be called devsdb1 first partition on devsdb. To make secondary hard drives permanently mountable at boot, do the following. How to format and partition external storage device ddwrt wiki. Before any hard drive is accessible, we must find out the device label. For those drives that need to work with a friends windows machine, ill have a small fat or ntfs partition.
Place the linux install cddvd in the cddvd drive on the computer. Push the appropriate key f12 for dell laptops to bring up the one time boot menu select boot from cddvd. Partition, format and mount disk driver on linux code farm. It allows windows to read linux file systems natively, providing access to the file system via a drive letter that any program can access. Once booted into linux to do this you might just as well copy the data to a ntfs partition which windows can read. I have successully worked with linux partition under windows before, maybe ext3 if i am not wrong, you just have to install a 3rd party driver like ex2ifs etc. Oct 01, 2015 in order to format hard drive on linux, you need to follow these steps. For more information see linux partition naming convention and ide drive mappings. Oct 07, 2019 whenever we attach a usb drive in ubuntu, it automatically mounted to the system. I have an external new hard drive connected using usb port under red hat fedora core linux.