Home / ubuntu / Questions / 1234045
In Process
Ancient
Asked: 2020-05-02 10:05:15 +0800 CST

How do I format just part of an external HDD?

  • 772

I have an external HDD with one NTFS partition. I need to shrink that partition and add one which is formatted as ext4 for use with Dropbox. The format utility built into Ubuntu seems like it can format the entire drive, but not part of a drive. Can anyone recommend an app which will do what I need?

After installing and running Dropbox (Ubuntu 18.04), I tried to move the Dropbox directory from its default location in the home directory, but a message said that Dropbox must have an ext4 partition in order to work. So, that's how I arrived at the question above.

format ext4 dropbox external-hdd

1 Answers

  1. To avoid any possible problem caused by Windows hibernation, it's best to use Windows Disk Management, if you can, to shrink your existing Windows C: partition, before using gparted in Ubuntu to add an ext4 partition to your existing NTFS partition.

    After making room in Windows with Disk Management, please click on the Windows icon and choose Shut Down while holding down the Shift key to make sure Windows shuts down completely.

    Power back up with a Ubuntu LiveUSB in your PC and choose it to boot from.

    Once the GRUB menu appears, start Ubuntu, then open a terminal window and run swapon off. This make sure, if there's a swap file in your system, it's closed and out of the way. Close or minimize the terminal window.

    Now, you can open gparted from the Ubuntu Desktop. At upper right, there's a spin box which shows all drive devices; make sure to set that to the external drive. Once you have, you can make formatting changes to that external drive.

    With gparted, you work in steps; specify the change, then commit it by clicking on the green checkmark below its Menu Bar. It's best to make only one change, then commit that change, before specifying another.

    • 1