How to formatt a hardrive in Linux

[elvis]

H! I have just got two new 4TB SATA hard-rives and in W10 It will only let me format 2TB, so I triad putting it in Linux Mint 20.1 but I do not no where to start.

I am using a Laptop with a 3.5” Portable Hard Drive Docking Station.

Thanks.

[mikkh]

Only the FAT32 (Windows) file system has an upper limit that might affect a modern hard drive that way, but the normal NTFS file system used by Windows can easily do 4TB and above

If you formatted to FAT32 thinking it would be more compatible with Linux, you didn't need to, because Linux will also read NTFS

The program to use in Linux (Mint or any other version) is called 'gparted' it's main use is for creating partitions, but it can also be used to format a drive in many different filing systems including Windows ones.

If it's not installed already you can get it via the package manager (synaptic) or by using the following command in the terminal.... sudo apt-get install gparted

[elvis]

H! Mikkh.

I have got a G-part I installed it when I reformated Linux about a month ago from Linux Mint 14 to Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa I still had to Install it.

I will have to have a look into it.

I will let you know what happens.

Thanks, Mikkh

[elvis]

Formatted NTFS in Windows 10 as I am very rusty formatting as I have not had to do it for a while, used space comes up as 134.2 and free space is 1.8TB.

Linux Mint NTFS 1.63 TB, allocation unit size 2048 kilobytes.

That to me is only half the hard drive and I do not know what I am doing wrong?

I have not look at doing it on G-part one look and it put me off, I will have to have a go with G-part with a spare hard drive soon.

Thanks

Mikka

[mikkh]

The basic gist of it is in this video, which is pick the right drive, create partition table and then put a filesystem on it.


Just noticed he's using a virtual system - on a real system, you'll probably need to unmount the drive first before being allowed to change it


RIGHT click the drive and 'unmount' should be one of the options.

[elvis]

H! Mikkh,

Thanks for the video I will have a look later.

Thanks.