If you did a "conversion" when you moved to ext4 then chances are you've turned on ext4-only on-disk features and therefore cannot go back to mounting it as ext3 without re-formatting. If you originally formatted as ext3 but have been mounting it as ext4 then you can safely go back to mounting it as ext3. If you formatted an ext4 partition from scratch then it probably uses extents and therefore you cannot mount it as ext3 without re-formatting. But others, particularly extents, are ext4-only and once you have used this feature of an ext4 partition there is no going back to being able to mount it as ext3 without re-formatting. Some of these optional extensions are not on-disk, so they don't affect your data or your ability to continue mounting the filesystem as ext3. It adds optional extensions to that filesystem but it includes all the features and extensions of ext2 and ext3. It's forwards-compatible in certain circumstances in that you can mount some ext4 partitions as ext2 or ext3.Įxt4 is a set of extensions to the ext2 and ext3 filesystems. It's backwards compatible in that you can mount ext2 and ext3 partitions as ext4 and they are perfectly valid ext4 partitions. But not all ext4 partitions can be mounted as ext3. Since you edited the /etc/fstab file, the disk should automount after a reboot.All ext3 partitions can be mounted as ext4. You should be able to change directory (cd) to /mnt/external1 and access your /dev/sda1 drive now. Be careful not to delete any existing disks, and only add a new line for the new disk: /etc/fstab There are quite a few options you can use in fstab, but these are the basics. For ease of use, I used the nano editor: sudo nano /etc/fstab Now we’ll want to edit our fstab file and create a reference for the drive using the UUID and mount point. To mount the disks now and after a reboot, we’ll need to get the UUID of the drive: sudo blkid You’ll need to create the mount point that you’ll use to mount your disk. This step can take a few minutes to complete depending on the size of the disk. Assuming this is the only partition on your disk, you’ll want to use /dev/sda1 (or whatever your disk identifier is): sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1 Next, we’ll need to format the partition using EXT4. The operation has completed successfully. OK writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/sda. Use the w option to write the changes to the disk: Command (? for help): w
Linux format partition ext4 code#
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): Select all the default options to create a partition using the whole disk: First sector (34-11721045134, default = 2048) or : THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING PARTITIONS!!Ĭreate a new partition using the n option and selecting partition number 1: Command (? for help): n
![linux format partition ext4 linux format partition ext4](https://www.diskpart.com/screenshot/en/std/format-partition/format-ntfs-to-ext4/apply.png)
Use the d option to delete the partitions: Command (? for help): dįinal checks complete. It is good practice to do this on new drives too, just to verify it is a clean drive: sudo gdisk /dev/sdaįound valid GPT with protective MBR using GPT.
![linux format partition ext4 linux format partition ext4](https://devconnected.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/lsblk.png)
If this is a used drive, you’ll want to delete all existing partitions. In the following commands, replace /dev/sda with the disk identifier of your drive! To get the disk identifier, run: sudo fdisk -l
Linux format partition ext4 how to#
How to Partition, Format, and Mount a Disk on Ubuntu 20.04 Using Command LineĪfter attaching your disk to the machine, you’ll want to get a list of the disks and find the disk identifier (i.e. For the purposes of this article, we’ll be formatting the disk using the EXT4 filesystem.
![linux format partition ext4 linux format partition ext4](https://devconnected.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/comparison.png)
You can use a new disk or a used disk that you’re wanting to erase. Using the Ubuntu GUI is straightforward, but if you’re running a Linux server, you’ll need to do this process using the command line. If you run an Ubuntu 20.04 server, or even a workstation, at some point you’ll probably need to connect an external drive and partition it, format it, and mount it.