Over at UbuntuGeek, the author writes:

I am trying to use my ext. HD but it is formatted for windows and I can’t figure out how to re-format so i can use it for ubuntu. Also, at one point i had alot of the desktop effects working now wobbly windows won’t work, but is checked in Compiz, and cube is checked but doesn’t seem to work? I am using 32 bit version, would 64 make a difference regarding this or is it just a lack of memory? I only have a 10G int. Hd, that’s why I am trying to use the other but can’t get it to work right.

What a great question…how do you format for use with UbuntuLinux? The way I’m reading this question must be too easy because it seems like UbuntuGeek is asking how to format in ext2 or ext3, rather than as FAT16 or FAT32 (formats readable by most operating systems, BTW).

Once upon a time, I also formatted my external drives as ext2/ext3 but had them get corrupted. I have not experienced that problem with FAT32 and so continue on. But formatting for the first time can be tough, esp if you are only on a GNU/Linux system.

Fortunately, I can format from Windows…but how do you do this in UbuntuLinux? The answer came in the form of this link to Formatting USB Drives for Ubuntu.

The author at the link recommends using Gparted instead of using the command line…it’s good advice, but you have to be careful what drive your partitioning! Here are some of the steps:

1. sudo apt-get install gparted
2. sudo gparted
3. He suggests…

   If you’ve just plugged your drive into the computer, unmount the drive by selecting the external drive (under GParted->Devices) and then doing Partition->Unmount.

   Then make sure the correct drive is selected (under GParted->Devices again). Once the right device is selected, click on the partition you want to format. You’ll see a dashed box appear around the partition that you clicked (see the picture above where “/dev/sdf1″ has been clicked).

   Now click Partition->Format to . I recommend “ext3″ because it’s a very stable file system. Finally, click “Apply” on the menu bar and just wait 3-4 minutes. GParted will do all the formatting for you.

Matt (who wrote the article) also has additional suggestions on labelling your usb external drive that are well worth reviewing.

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