>> One thing, you have to run mkfs on an unmounted partition ( i.e
>> /dev/sdXX ). Standard disclamer: I make no claims of responsibility
>> for lost files, bla, bla, bla.
> I remembered that I didn't care about a couple of drives so I did it
> regardless of it being blank or not. Yet still I got the same response:
>
> bmike1@bmike1:/mnt$ umount sda6
> bmike1@bmike1:/mnt$ ls
> cdrom floppy hda1 hda5 hda6 hda7 hda8 sda5 sda6
> bmike1@bmike1:/mnt$ umount /dev/sda6
> umount: /dev/sda6 is not mounted (according to mtab)
> bmike1@bmike1:/mnt$ su
> Password:
> root@bmike1:/mnt# mkfs -t ext2 -j /mnt/sda6
> mke2fs 1.34-WIP (21-May-2003)
> /mnt/sda6 is not a block special device.
> Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
> mkfs.ext2: Device size reported to be zero. Invalid partition
> specified, or
> partition table wasn't reread after running fdisk, due to
> a modified partition being busy and in use. You may need to
> reboot to re-read your partition table.
>
> root@bmike1:/mnt# umount sda5
> root@bmike1:/mnt# mkfs -t ext2 -j /mnt/sda5
> mke2fs 1.34-WIP (21-May-2003)
> /mnt/sda5 is not a block special device.
> Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
> mkfs.ext2: Device size reported to be zero. Invalid partition
> specified, or
> partition table wasn't reread after running fdisk, due to
> a modified partition being busy and in use. You may need to
> reboot to re-read your partition table.
>
> root@bmike1:/mnt#
>
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I guess I am not understanding the question, but you keep trying to mkfs the
mountpoint, instead of the device. In my befuddlement, it looks to me like
you should use 'mkfs -t ext2 -j /dev/sda5' instead of 'mkfs -t ext2 -j
/mnt/sda5'.
Scott