[wellylug] mke2fs

[Duane Griffin]

On 19 April 2012 05:42, Glenn Morrissey <glennstuartmorrissey at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi All
>
> Im wanting to format my 500Gb HD with Ext4 File system. The current
> command I have been able to acsertain is:
>
> mke2fs -cctv ext4 /dev/sda

The t needs to be after the v. As it is you are specifying a type of
"v" and trying to format the device "ext4" with block count
"/dev/sda". Also, this will format the entire raw disk device, as
opposed to a partition. This may be what you want, so I'm just noting
it.

> Now I believe this does a bad block check before formatting. I want to
> do a proper ms dos-like format, not just a quick format. Is there any
> other options that I should use in this command?
> Do I need to set block size? Please let me know.

mke2fs does not distinguish between "proper" and "quick" formats. If
you want to wipe the contents of the drive before you format it then
you can use dd or wipe or something similar, e.g.: "dd if=/dev/zero
of=/dev/sda".

You don't need to set a block size. Unless you are planning on doing
something rather unusual, or you have exotic hardware, you should just
trust the defaults. The only other option you may want to pass is "-L
<whatever>" to give the volume a label.

> Cheers
> Glenn.

Cheers,
Duane.

-- 
"I never could learn to drink that blood and call it wine" - Bob Dylan