mke2fs /dev/hdb1
mkfs.ext2 /dev/hdb1
both of which make an ext2 file system on the first partition of the second drive, and
mke2fs -j /dev/hdb1
mkfs.ext3 /dev/hdb1
make an ext3 file system.
mkfs.ext3 -m 1/dev/hdb1
creates a file system with only 1% of its space reserved for the root user.