February 4, 2012


Formatting a Disk Partition from Linux


A partition can be formatted to different file systems. For a pen drive FAT partition is adopted universally. Linux partition is commonly ext3/ext2/ext4/reiserfs.. . Windows usually work with FAT or NTFS partitions.

For formatting a partition as FAT ( as in the case of a pen drive ), give the command

mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb1

where /dev/sdb1 corresponds to the required partition. To get partition number plug in the device, mount it (automatic), get the number from /etc/mtab.
Note: The partition should have unmounted before formatting it.
Similar commands for formatting other systems are mkfs.bfs,mkfs.ext2,mkfs.minix,mkfs.reiserfs,mkfs.cramfs,mkfs.ext3,mkfs.msdos,mkfs.vfat

GUI tools for formatting a partition are gparted (for Gnome) and qtparted (for kde).

Explore GMAIL in mulitple Indian Languages

It would become handy if we could use our mail in our language itself.we will be writing mails and forwarding to all,each day.it would be better expressive and unambiguous to the readers if we post it in our language than using any other.When you compose a new mail in Gmail, you should now see an icon with an Indian character, as the screenshot below shows. This feature is enabled by default for Gmail users in India. If you do not see this function enabled by default, you will need to go the “Settings” page and enable this option in the “Language” section.

When you click the Indian languages icon, you can type words the way they sound in English and Gmail will automatically convert the word to its Indian local language equivalent.