up vote 3 down vote favorite

How long does it usually take to format a 2TB external HD using ext4 and gparted?

share|improve this question
    
ext4 can be formatted in a defered way, where most of formatting commences in background while the filesystem can already be used after a very short initalization period. Using mkfs.ext4, the option would be -E lazy_itable_init=1, and this even is a default setting it seems. I don't know how to make gparted using this option, but maybe it is possible. Using this feature, a 2GB partition gets available after about one minute. – dronus Mar 3 '14 at 15:07
up vote 3 down vote accepted

It depends. Are you just formatting, or formatting and wiping the drive? How is the drive connected? USB 1/2/3? Firewire? eSATA?

Are there other partitions that need to be cleared off first?

Honestly, its probably going to take a while, so be patient.

share|improve this answer
up vote 4 down vote

It takes 17 minutes and 16 seconds.

Using: Ubuntu 10.04 amd64; gparted 0.7.1; mke2fs 1.41.11; USB2; a Western Digital Elements 2TB drive. This is just for the format; the partitioning was done in an earlier step.

Your mileage may vary.

share|improve this answer
    
I came here to ask an uncannily similar question; I could ask it separately, but it would probably be a duplicate. I am stuck on the partition step. I told it to delete the pre-existing NTFS parition and create an ~1700 GB ext4 and ~300 GB ntfs. However, it has been on the "delete partition" step (for the pre-exisitng NTFS) for a very long time (well over a day). I am on a E1505, with Kubuntu 9.10, and USB 2.0. I have the same drive. – Matthew Flaschen Jan 8 '11 at 2:30
    
Deleting the partition should be (almost) instantaneous. It might be an idea to try unplugging and replugging your drive; if that doesn't work then try rebooting; and if that doesn't work, maybe download and boot from the gparted Live CD? – Calroth Jan 8 '11 at 5:03
1  
thanks. That's what I originally thought, but then I rationalized that it might be zeroing the partition (although it was still really long). When I canceled, it segfaulted and printed gpartedbin[17137]: segfault at 6b202d54 ip 06e671ef sp bfc1fb10 error 4 in libc-2.10.1.so[6dfc000+13e000]. Of course, it shouldn't segfault regardless. But I'm not sure if it did so because I canceled, or it was already in "trouble". The fact that it took so long makes me suspect the latter. At any rate, when I check now, the partition table is empty. – Matthew Flaschen Jan 8 '11 at 10:35
    
The creation of the two new partitions was fairly quick and uneventful. – Matthew Flaschen Jan 8 '11 at 11:27
up vote 3 down vote

Assuming that mke2fs has to write data (e.g. for inode tables, journal, superblocks and accounting information) till only about 5% of the size of the filesystem and a write speed of 100 MB/s it would take under 17 minutes!

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.