Creating Linux format (ext3) disks

This page describes how to create a linux ext3 format disk. ARSF-DAN switched to solely NTFS format disks in 2011, so these instructions should only be used for hyperspectral data prior to 2011.

Partition and format the disk (command line)

1. Run fdisk /dev/DEVICE_NAME (not partition)
2. enter 'p' to print partition table and check you have selected the correct disk
3. enter 'd' to delete the current partition (delete them all)
4. enter 'n' to create a new partition
5. enter 'p' to make new partition the primary partition. If it asks you to give a partition number press 1 and enter. Then press enter twice to fill the whole disk.
6. enter 'p' to print new partition table – if all seems fine enter 'w' to write
7. To be on the safe side, run dmesg again to make sure device name hasn't changed. You should now see the partition listed as device_name1, e.g. sdb1
8. Unmount the partition if it remounted.
9. Run mke2fs -j /dev/partition

Remount and fix permissions:

1. Unplug the disk and plug back in. The disk space should be located under /media/disk. It is wise to check that this destination is correct: 'df /media/disk' to check that this is where the device is mounted.
2. Make writable for everyone using chmod a+rwx /media/disk

Copy over your data onto the disk

Copy the delivery folder to /media/disk.

Finalising hard disk

Set permissions and owner:

chmod a+rX,a-w -R /media/disk
chown root.root -R /media/disk

NOTE: Be sure to record the number of the hard disk (or giving it one if it does not yet have one) before packing it.