Problem "Creating ext4 file system for/ in partition #1 etc"

Hi guys, My name is Ross. Ive recently tried to install zorin os 5.2 onto my computer and i get to a point in the installation where it says (as was written in the title);

Creating ext4 file system for / in partition #1 of SCSI3 (0,0,0) (sda)...

the loading wheel just keeps going round and i left it for a while thinking it was just doing its thing but using the little button to toggle the code its come up with a whole bunch of c*** that I don't understand

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or should i try write out a bit of code for you something
Much apreciated, Ross

Cheers

Hi Ross,

what you need to do is create 3 seperate partitions, 1 root (20 GB). 1 Swap (Double your RAM). 1 home (this can be any size but I would say; not under 50 GB.

You did not need to create an extended partition, just create the 3 partitions as I said.

Mount points are:
/ for root
/home for home
swap has no mount point

I would re-install and when asked by the installer where you want to install, select something else and create the 3 partitions as I described above.

Regards Wolfman

See this how-to:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1616

Thanks guys. New problem though, i should probably say at this point that im running off a laptop hard drive and i don't think its working properly. i was just seeing what to do just incase it was actually fine but its gone a bit loopy, i did what you said and it was still having the same problem putting ext4 on partition #3 this time, which was my '/' root partition, but now no matter what i do its saying "input/output error during read on /dev/sda"
any suggestions or do you think its busted? I can afford to get a new HDD btw so don't worry if it is.
Thanks for the help, Ross

Hi Ross,

as you only seem to have Zorin on your HD you could try starting again and re-formatting the drive, just because you are getting input/output errors doesn't mean your HD is defect!!.

Regards Wolfman

You can run the "disk utility" of zorin (system>administration>disk utility), select your HDD and read the comments/info on the right and check the "SMART status" for errors.
I had some problems with the HDD of one of my laptops and used hdd-regenerator to short it out. http://www.hdd-regenerator.net/

Thanks again guys, its giving me error messages when i try to format the disk and even when i try to format it with no partitions its saying that it cant create a specific partition so i have no idea whats going on there.
However i did run that disk utility and i did a test on the HD and the SMART data says that it has 545 'bad sectors' and then on the list of tests its done its all fine apart from the 'Reallocated sector count' which has a warning sign next to it. When i scroll over it it says 'Type: Failure is a sign of imminent disk failure (Pre-Fail)'
anything i could do?
thanks, Ross

I had the same problem.
Does it also ask you to press F1 every time you restart?

Unfortunately the HDD needs to be replaced.

I did the following. I used HDD regenerator and I corrected all bad sectors and all other problems.
Ofcourse this did not resolve 100% the issue but I could format the drive with no problem and generally use it as if there was no problem. However, I kept getting pop-up messages.
I then disabled the "disk error notifications" from the start-up manager.

I have the laptop like that for over 7 months now and the only obvious issue I get is the error notification at startup to press F1.

However, I know I am playing with fire as you never know when (or if) the HDD will crash. But I only use this laptop for browsing internet.

So my advice is, if you use your laptop for work and you keep important documents in the HDD, you better replace it.
If you use the laptop just for browsing internet and having fun, you can do as I did.

The machine is not old at all. It's about 3 years old. It is a small fijitsu-siemens laptop (9" monitor) that my father bought just to browse the internet.
He was never shutting it down. The machine had XP when we got the error messages for the HDD. It had 500+ bad sectors. I could not format it properly and the installation of zorin was taking ages.
So I used HDD regenerator and this fixed all the bad sectors and I was able to do a proper and fast installation of zorin. The problem was not solved 100%. I kept getting error messages both when in desktop and also during boot.
I disabled the error message pop-up at zorin (from startup applications), and the only "annoying" thing is the message I get at boot (which clearly states that the HDD is damaged and I must press F1 to continue).
Other than that, the laptop works just great. It's been over 7 months that I did the fix.

The laptop has a very small HDD which is expensive and hard to find. And I am not willing to spend money on it unless I really have to (i.e. it crashes). As I said it's just for browsing the web. My father is still leaving the laptop always on, but this time I have gone through Zorin's power management and I have arranged everything so as after 5 minutes of non operation the monitor to turn off and after 10 minutes the laptop falls in complete hybernation mode like it is closed.

So far, it works like a charm. If one day I will hear an explosion from the HDD I will let you know...