Hi all, In the absence of any clear/easy way to split a large tar/cpio/pax backup over multiple files, I'm thinking of repartitioning the USB drive I have and putting a Linux-appropriate file system onto it. However, I just asked fdisk to take a look at it, and it didn't seem very sure about itself. Obviously I don't want to damage the drive's partitioning in a way that I can't recover it properly, so I'm looking for input. This is what I saw: linux:/home/simon # fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: [snip snip...] Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 1 60801 488384001 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) linux:/home/simon # fdisk /dev/sdb1 The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 60800. [... snip snip...] Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sdb1: 500.1 GB, 500105217024 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60800 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes This doesn't look like a partition table Probably you selected the wrong device. Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1p1 ? 46390 152334 850999312 65 Novell Netware 386 Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sdb1p2 ? 48229 117156 553649047 6e Unknown Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sdb1p3 ? 193979 209336 123360830+ 49 Unknown Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sdb1p4 ? 23815 23815 3302+ ac Unknown Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary. Partition table entries are not in disk order Command (m for help): q The size information is right (at least broadly so; it's a 500GB drive as sold) but the partition information sure does look wierd. So, my question is, can I safely repartition this? Will fdisk mess it up? Can I restore it to "general purpose" use (i.e. get it back to a FAT32 format) using fdisk afterwards. Or should I be using some other partitioning tool entirely? TIA, Cheers, Simon "You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions." — Naguib Mahfouz -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org