24

How do you format an external hard drive to ext4 via the command line in ubuntu?

subodh007
  • 350
  • 1
  • 12
ss_millionaire
  • 353
  • 1
  • 3
  • 5

1 Answers1

45

The command is mkfs.ext4, see its man page.

If you are ok with the default settings(1), it's just 

mkfs.ext4 /dev/yourpartitionhere

Footnotes:

(1) from the man page:

The defaults of the parameters for the newly created filesystem, if not overridden by the options listed below, are controlled by the /etc/mke2fs.conf configuration file. See the mke2fs.conf(5) manual page for more details.

Rmano
  • 31,627
  • 16
  • 118
  • 187
  • Okay thanks. How do you get the device information? Like the command to know if it is /dev/sda or /dev/sdb? – ss_millionaire Nov 13 '14 at 08:03
  • 4
    Never mind i got it..its `sudo fdisk -l` . Thanks – ss_millionaire Nov 13 '14 at 08:22
  • 1
    May also need to use fdisk fist to setup the partitions sudo fdisk /dev/sdx -> d -> n -> 1 -> enter -> enter -> w then the above sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx1 depending on the partitions, it should be /dev/sdx1 most likely it is not /dev/sdx – TheArchitecta Dec 16 '18 at 11:20