[Solved]Precisions on formating

Bestinbest · 2020-12-21 12:02:13

Hello,

I have problems formatting my disks...

1. I thought the command

 mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3

was deleting the data on sda3, but after that I mount /home on sda3 ans it creates no problem, just as if the file was existing. Maybe I didn't really understood what that command is so I would like maybe an explanation if I am wrong.

2. The real problem is that on a post posted a while ago, I asked how to format my sda1 to properly be an EFI system partition, and the answer was to run :

mkfs.fat32 -F32 /dev/sda1

But it doesn't seems to work because when I enter

fdisk -l

the type of /dev/sda1 is still Linux filesystem.

Best regards

Last edited by Bestinbest (2020-12-21 23:47:20)

Trilby · 2020-12-21 14:08:36

Bestinbest wrote:

... after that I mount /home on sda3 ans it creates no problem, just as if the file was existing.

What does this mean? You cannot mount a path on a device. You mount a device on a path. Assuming you meant you mounted sda3 on /home, that can be done. But what problem did you expect it to create? What file did you infer was existing? How did you make this inference? What commands did you actually run and what was their output?

Bestinbest wrote:

I asked how to format my sda1 to properly be an EFI system partition, and the answer was to run :
mkfs.fat32 -F32 /dev/sda1
But it doesn't seems to work because when I enter
fdisk -l
the type of /dev/sda1 is still Linux filesystem.

To create an efi partition you need to 1) format it, and 2) assign the proper partition type in the partition table. Generally these are done in the opposite order, partitioning then formating, but assuming you don't need to change the partition size or placement, it should be fine to change the partition type after the fact. But again, that's an entirely different process from formatting a partition. Use fdisk to set the partition type. This is all clearly covered in the installation guide (and pages linked from it).

As a side note, please edit your first post to give this thread a real title representing your problem / question.

Last edited by Trilby (2020-12-21 14:12:03)

Bestinbest · 2020-12-21 14:44:27

Trilby wrote:

This is all clearly covered in the installation guide

Sorry, I misreaded the note on the page, I know it is my fault but I feel more like the installation guide is a memo for people knowing how to do... Anyway I know the forum is here to help so thank you for your time.

Trilby wrote:

What file did you infer was existing? How did you make this inference? What commands did you actually run and what was their output?

I had the files of archlinux downloaded from a previous attempt to install it.
I had the problem with the EFI i talked about, and as I wasn't sure of what I had done, I wanted to start from the beginning. So I expected the mount point (/home) to be missing because I hadn't created it yet. But when I entered

 mount /dev/sda3 /home

nothing came out and with the command lsblk the device is mounted so I suppose it is good and he found the file, and that's the weird point because I supposed the formatting part would erase files.

Last edited by Bestinbest (2020-12-21 14:45:45)

Trilby · 2020-12-21 14:56:38

Bestinbest wrote:

But when I entered
 mount /dev/sda3 /home 
nothing came out and with the command lsblk the device is mounted so I suppose it is good and he found the file, and that's the weird point because I supposed the formatting part would erase files.

Formatting erased everything on /dev/sda3. The /home/ directory was on the running filesystem, whether this was this the iso, or an installed system. Once mounted with that command , there should be no content under /home/ because sda3 was newly formatted.

Bestinbest · 2020-12-21 15:01:35

Oh I see that explains a lot of things I didn't understood before. Thank you for your helpfull responses

GSMiller · 2020-12-21 19:38:18

Bestinbest, it seems you erased everything on your /dev/sda3 partition!

Bestinbest · 2020-12-21 19:44:02

Yes I think it is what I wanted to do lol

2ManyDogs · 2020-12-21 23:42:09

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Arch Linux

#1 2020-12-21 12:02:13

[Solved]Precisions on formating

#2 2020-12-21 14:08:36

Re: [Solved]Precisions on formating

#3 2020-12-21 14:44:27

Re: [Solved]Precisions on formating

#4 2020-12-21 14:56:38

Re: [Solved]Precisions on formating

#5 2020-12-21 15:01:35

Re: [Solved]Precisions on formating

#6 2020-12-21 19:38:18

Re: [Solved]Precisions on formating

#7 2020-12-21 19:44:02

Re: [Solved]Precisions on formating

#8 2020-12-21 23:42:09

Re: [Solved]Precisions on formating

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