A ext2, ext3 or ext4 filesystem will be more appropriate and won’t be subjected to the limitations of fat32. However, even though Linux understands fat32, it is not its native filesystem. In the picture below I have selected the fat32 filesystem. If for some reason GParted refuses to partition and format the drive scroll down to the next section “Problematic Drives”ġ) On the top right, select the drive you wish to partition and format from the drop down menu.Ģ) On the top menu click on “ Partition” and then “ New“.ģ) On the “Create new Partition” window, select “ Primary Partition“.Ĥ) Then select the type of filesystem you wish to have. For those of you who do not have a computer with Linux, you can download the GParted LiveCD, which will let you format the drive without having to run it from a Linux installation. GParted is a Linux program you can download it and install it on your favorite Linux distribution. GParted is a free utility designed to partition and format drives in a wide variety of filesystems, some of which include, ext2, ext3, ext4, NTFS, fat32, fat16, etc. In this section we are going to be using GParted. This first section should work for most drives out there, including USB external hard disks and disks that are connected straight to the computer via IDE or SATA interfaces.

How to format my hard drive on linux