Problems trying to mount an external hard drive using fat32

Vieri'LoSteso · *nix forums beginner Joined: 24 Apr 2005 Posts: 1

Hi, everybody!

Well I'm not new to Linux but It's the first time I get such a stupid
error and I don't know what to do anymore.

I use a Powerbook G3 400Mhz with 320MB and 6GB internal hd. Gentoo 2005.0
with kernel 2.6.11 and everything works fine.
Now I'm trying to make my external hard disk working.
It is a 120Gb Western Digital USB2.0/Firewire HD.

If I partition it as a Linux drive (120gb), with an ext3 file system I can
mount it with no problem both via USB or Firewire.

If I partition it a a WIN95 FAT32 drive:

bash-2.05b# fdisk /dev/sda

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 14593.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-14593, default 1): 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-14593, default 14593):
Using default value 14593

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 14593 117218241 83 Linux

Command (m for help): t
Selected partition 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): b
Changed system type of partition 1 to b (W95 FAT32)

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

WARNING: If you have created or modified any DOS 6.x
partitions, please see the fdisk manual page for additional
information.
Syncing disks.
bash-2.05b# mkfs.vfat -F32 -nDOWN /dev/sda1
mkfs.vfat 2.10 (22 Sep 2003)
bash-2.05b# mount /dev/sda1 -t vfat /mnt/fw
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1,
or too many mounted file systems

I get the same error both with small partitions of 30gb or 30MB.

What's wrong?

P.S.: I need this fat32 to make documents interchangable.

Thank u all for any kind of advice!! :-)

--
Vieri

ppesci@gmail.com · *nix forums beginner Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 12

Sound very weird. May be you can try pdisk instead. I used it and no
problems until now.
Another way is to do a partition and format in a windoze machine.

Pietro

sam tygier · *nix forums beginner Joined: 30 Apr 2005 Posts: 7

have you tried gparted or qtparted?

sam tygier
http://www.tygier.co.uk/

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