I partitioned a second hard drive with two partitions, hdc1 and hdc2. Now I assume I need to create a file system. I'm trying to use ext3. I was able to use the following command for hdc1:

#mkfs -t ext2 -j /dev/hdc1

When I tried the same statement with hdc2, the second half of the drive, I got the following message:

# mkfs -t ext2 -j /dev/hdc2
mke2fs 1.34 (25-Jul-2003)
/dev/hdc2: Invalid argument passed to ext2 library while setting up superblock

What the heck does that mean? Am I not able to use the same mkfs statement to set up ext3 in the second partition of that drive?

Your help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

Mike

soujrnr; try this; http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX.
section4:4.1.8/4.3.11/4.5.1
answers may be there + work arounds.

If you are formatting the two partitions for installing a Linux then don't bother because the installer would not trust you and always format them. You only need to format them for self use.

I always use

mke2fs -j /dev/hdc1
mke2fs -j /dev/hdc2

It is quite easy to member as you are making ext2 filing system. The -j is to have a journal system so that the ext2 effectively becomes ext3 type.