Getting error: device is apparently in use by the system; will not make a filesystem here!

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • When trying to format the partition, it fails with error message: /dev/sdc1 is apparently in use by the system; will not make a filesystem here!
#mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdc1  
 mke2fs 1.39 (29-May-2006)  
 /dev/sdc1 is apparently in use by the system; will not make a filesystem here!

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
  • EXT3

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