format hard drive using linux

I have linux on my computer. how do I go about formatting my hard drive?

To format in the ext2 (Linux native) filesystem,

mke2fs /dev/hdX#

is the command you're looking for if you have IDE drive(s). Where X is a letter indicating which hard drive, and # is a number indicating which partition.

If you have SCSI, then

mke2fs /dev/sdX#

But either of these will only work if your partition is already designated as ext2. Use

fdisk -l

to get a listing of your hard drive(s) and the partition(s) it (or they) contain.

Do some research before you use this command, as it can easily hose your system if you use it on (for example) your root partition.

Enjoy,
--- Cerbere

Please don't use ext2, unless you plan on immediately updating to ext3 (it's a one command deal once you have the ext2 filesystems made, but if you're making the filesystems fresh, just make ext3 to begin with). Or choose some other journaling filesystem. There's really no reason not to use a journaling filesystem these days, be it ext3 (my choice), reiserfs, XFS, or JFS...