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><A
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>5. Format the new disk</A
></H1
><P
>Use the following command to format Linux partitions using ext2fs on the new disk:
<TABLE
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><TD
><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>mkfs.ext2 /dev/hdb1</PRE
></TD
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></TABLE
></P
><P
>To check the disk for bad blocks (physical defects), add the
<TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-c</TT
> option just before
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>/dev/hdb1</TT
>.</P
><P
>If the new disk will have more than one Linux partition, format the
other partitions with <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>mkfs.ext2 /dev/hdb2</B
>,
<B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>mkfs.ext2 /dev/hdb3</B
>, and so on. Add the
<TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-c</TT
>
option if desired.</P
><DIV
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><BLOCKQUOTE
CLASS="NOTE"
><P
><B
>Note: </B
>With older distributions, the command
<B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>mkfs -t ext2 -c /dev/hdb1</B
>
didn't check for bad blocks under any of Red Hat, Debian or
Slackware, contrary to what the man page stated. This has now been
fixed.</P
></BLOCKQUOTE
></DIV
><P
>To format a swap partition, use this command:
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><PRE
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>mkswap /dev/hdb1</PRE
></TD
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></P
><P
>Again, you can add the <TT
CLASS="OPTION"
>-c</TT
> option before
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>/dev/hdb1</TT
> to check for bad blocks.</P
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