External Hard Drive Detection Problem need help

[Alexander Smirnov]

Jordi Ferrando Fabra wrote:
> Hi Ralph,
>
> This is what I did to use my WD external HDDs:
> First edit the partition table and create a partition type "Linux"
> $ sudo fdisk /dev/sda (or sdb, sdc, ...)
> -->Create the partition and save changes
> Create the file system
> $ sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1 (or sdb1, ...)
> Mount the hard drive (this is also done by the automounter sometimes)
> $ sudo mkdir /media/extdisk
> $ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /media/extdisk
>
> Ralph De Witt wrote:
>   
>> Hello:
>> I just bought a new 500 GB Western Digital My Book external Hard Drive. The 
>> USB system see it attached as a Unknown device with the My Book attached to 
>> it. How can I get it recognized as a storage media so that I can use it? Is 
>> there any hope of this in Kbunbutu? Fedora 8 seems to have no problems with 
>> it. TIA
>>     
I second Jordi's answer.
It is required to make partitions and format them first. You can achive 
this by executing commmands above, or use one of GUI tools, such as 
qtParted or gparted.