HDD Format

This guide can be used for formatting camera internal hard drives or compact flash medium, etc.

Step 1:

Open a command window (terminal).

telnet 192.168.0.9  (If the default IP hasn't been changed.  Or you can connect via 'ssh' using putty for example)
Login: root
Password: pass

Step 2:

cat /proc/partitions  

This will show you a list that should include: hda, hdb, etc... if you have storage devices connected. If these devices have been partitioned, then you will also see in the list: hda1, hdb1, etc... Or if they have multiple partitions: hda1, hda2, hdb1, hdb2, hdb3, etc...

Step 3:

fdisk /dev/hda  

This will allow you to partition, or re-partition the hard drive, before it can be formatted. It is recommended to make one partition using the full capacity of the drive.

More parameters:

m  (This shows the help screen)
d  (If you need to delete any previous partitions)
n  (To create a new partition.  Follow the prompts and type 'p' and then '1', to make it the first primary partition, and then hit 'enter' twice to use the full capacity.)
p  (To show the new partition table that you just created on the screen, and verify that it is correct.)
w  (To save the partition table to the disk, and exit.)

Step 4:

mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda1  

This formats the drive with the proper file system. This will only work after the drive has been partitioned.

Step 5:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/0  

This will mount your newly partitioned and formatted drive to 'Mount 0' so that the system knows where to look for it.

Step 6:

ls /mnt/0  

This is just a quick check to see that the camera can read the drive now. You should see just one directory called 'lost_and_found'.