Gareth Asked: 2009-06-08 01:22:43 +0800 CST2009-06-08 01:22:43 +0800 CST 2009-06-08 01:22:43 +0800 CST What's the quickest way to format a drive (USB, HDD, Floppy) under Linux? 772 I had fdisk segfault and just wondered if anyone had any other options? EDIT: It was late and that was a dumb question. Good answer though! linux format formatting fdisk 2 Answers Voted Best Answer David Pashley 2009-06-08T01:42:52+08:002009-06-08T01:42:52+08:00 fdisk is for partitioning drives. To format a drive, you would use the mkfs command. You need to specify the filesystem type using the -t option. I believe the default is ext2. The mkfs man page will explain more. Example: # mkfs -t vfat /dev/sda1 pgs 2009-06-08T01:41:09+08:002009-06-08T01:41:09+08:00 If fdisk segfaults, then try cfdisk or sfdisk.
fdisk is for partitioning drives. To format a drive, you would use the mkfs command. You need to specify the filesystem type using the -t option. I believe the default is ext2. The mkfs man page will explain more.
Example:
If fdisk segfaults, then try cfdisk or sfdisk.