mkfs.vfat unable create file partition

Question

I am trying to create a file system partition using the mkfs.vfat command.

Below is the command I'm using:

mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n program /dev/sdb1
mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n init /dev/sdb2

I'm getting the below warning:

mkfs.fat 3.0.26 (2014-03-07)
mkfs.fat: warning - lowercase labels might not work properly with DOS or Windows
mkfs.vfat: failed whilst writing FAT
mkfs.fat 3.0.26 (2014-03-07)
mkfs.fat: warning - lowercase labels might not work properly with DOS or Windows
mkfs.vfat: failed whilst writing FAT

Why?

Solution

You can ignore the lowercase label warning.

You need to separate the commands, e.g.

mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n program /dev/sdb1 
mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n init /dev/sdb2

If your device have no partitions than you have to create new partition table, here is a good example: http://www.howtogeek.com/106873/how-to-use-fdisk-to-manage-partitions-on-linux/.

Comments

[mrudula]

I have these two as separate commands: $ mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n program /dev/sdb1 $mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n init /dev/sdb2 Unable to get partitions !! Any idea?

[mrudula]

I want to create three different partitions on my SD card. First partition is of FAT32 type using mkfs.vfat, similarly second is of FAT 32. Third partition is of EXT2 type using mkfa.ext2. Third partition is getting created and mounted properly. But firts two partitions are not proper, as i'm getting above mentioned errors. so mkfs.vfat is unable to run completely not creating expected results. any guess?

[Yurii Kolesnykov]

I gently ask you again for output of fdisk -l /dev/sdb and dmesg