Форматировать большой диск

Это зависит от того, какую файловую систему вы хотите использовать, например, используя ext4:

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1 

Самый простой способ - воссоздать файловую систему:

sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1 

От man mkfs:

mke2fs is used to create an ext2, ext3, or ext4 filesystem, usually in a disk partition. device is the special file corresponding to the device  (e.g /dev/hdXX). blocks-count is the number of blocks on the device. If omit‐ ted, mke2fs automagically figures the file system size. If called as mkfs.ext3  a journal is created as if the -j option was specified.  The defaults of the parameters for the newly created filesystem, if not over- ridden by the options listed below, are controlled by the /etc/mke2fs.conf configuration file. See the mke2fs.conf(5) manual page for more details.