When formatting large drives (2TB+) with ext4 on resource-constrained Linux systems, the process can take significantly longer than NTFS quick formats in Windows. This delay stems from several technical factors:

• Journal initialization (writing metadata structures)
• Inode table creation
• Block allocation checks
• Default full initialization of all blocks

Here are three approaches to accelerate ext4 formatting:

# 1. Quick format (skip initialization)
mkfs.ext4 -E lazy_itable_init=1,lazy_journal_init=1 /dev/sdX1

# 2. Reduced journal size
mkfs.ext4 -J size=16 /dev/sdX1

# 3. Disable full check (risky for production)
mkfs.ext4 -T largefile4 -F /dev/sdX1

Testing on a Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB RAM:

For developers needing custom tuning:

# Optimal settings for database workloads
mkfs.ext4 -O flex_bg,^has_journal,^extent -E lazy_itable_init=1 -T largefile4 /dev/sdX1

# Alternative using tune2fs post-format
tune2fs -o journal_data_writeback /dev/sdX1
tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sdX1

While quick formatting improves speed, note these trade-offs:

• Lazy initialization may cause first-write delays
• Smaller journals increase risk of corruption
• Some enterprise storage solutions require full initialization

Many Linux users coming from Windows are surprised by how long ext4 formatting takes compared to NTFS. On a 2TB drive with limited RAM, this process can feel endless. The delay occurs because ext4 performs several operations during formatting:

• Creating the journal (default size is 128MB)
• Initializing inode tables
• Writing superblocks and backup superblocks
• Performing full device scanning (unless disabled)

For a faster format that skips most time-consuming operations:

mkfs.ext4 -E lazy_itable_init=1,lazy_journal_init=1 /dev/sdX

This command does two crucial things:

1. lazy_itable_init=1: Delays inode table initialization until mount time
2. lazy_journal_init=1: Creates an empty journal to be filled later

For even better performance on low-powered systems:

mkfs.ext4 -T default -E lazy_itable_init=1,lazy_journal_init=1,packed_meta_blocks=1 /dev/sdX

Key parameters explained:

While quick formatting is great for most cases, avoid it when:

• The drive is brand new (run full format once for bad block detection)
• You suspect disk errors
• Maximum long-term performance is critical

On a Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB RAM formatting a 2TB HDD:

Standard format: 12 minutes 34 seconds
Quick format: 47 seconds
Optimized format: 32 seconds

Create a reusable script for frequent formatting:

#!/bin/bash
# quick_ext4.sh
DEVICE=$1
echo "Quick formatting $DEVICE to ext4"
sudo mkfs.ext4 -T default \
-E lazy_itable_init=1,lazy_journal_init=1,packed_meta_blocks=1 \
$DEVICE

Usage:

chmod +x quick_ext4.sh
./quick_ext4.sh /dev/sdb1