formatting external drives

Hi all....who are more experienced than me with linux

Complete newby to linux but getting to like it as I find my way around...but I have came across something that I can't seem to find how to do....I've got a new external hard drive ...which is not set up for FAT system.....can I format this drive using my Aspire one to format it....I've had a look but nothing is leaping out at me on how to do this....please help....and thankx in advance

Danny

 

install Gparted from the repo; it's a partition editor.
Select your external drive from the drop down menu, unmount, format, and tada! :geek:

 

Excuse my ignorance ...that all made sense apart from the "repo"....and I take it Gparted is just a piece of software ....

Thankx again

Danny

 

"repos" are software repositories, it would help to know which version of linux you are using ie linpus or ubuntu etc...

 

Linpus is on the machine ...that is what was on it when it came......I have had another play...and now can go to disk manager from desktop ...but when I go there it tells me that there is no disks installed that I can dismount ...and it tells me to seek advice from my administrator ...HHHEEELLLPPP!!!!!..LOl

Danny

 

Hi rhodan4t,

Please try this open a terminal and type
sudo yum install ntfs-config then press enter.

Once done right click the desktop and from the advanced menu look for ntfs-config click it and make sure it is set up for reading and writing.

 

tryed that now I'm a worse pickle ...it won't even see my memory stick......tryed switching enable read write on and off ...but no joy.....any ideas....cos up until now I coulod see any mem stick and an old external hard drive ,....the problems started for me when I bought a new one and wanted to format to the aspire one ....so any help from here would be greatly appreciated ...also I have VLC player downloaded to my machine but it played AVI audio only....so any clues on how to fix this problem

Danny