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Fdisk

fdisk

fdisk stands for "fixed disk" or "format disk."

The purpose of fdisk is to create, delete, resize, and manage disk partitions on a storage device such as a hard drive or solid-state drive.

=== List

To list all detected hard disks: 

fdisk -l | grep '^Disk'

Step #1 : Partition the new disk using fdisk command

Following command will

#

Output:

Disk /dev/sda: 251.0 GB, 251000193024 bytes
Disk /dev/sdb: 251.0 GB, 251000193024 bytes

A device name refers to the entire hard disk. For more information see Linux partition naming convention and IDE drive mappings.

To partition the disk – /dev/sdb, enter:

# fdisk /dev/sdb

The basic fdisk commands you need are:

  • m – print help

  • p – print the partition table

  • n – create a new partition

  • d – delete a partition

  • q – quit without saving changes

  • w – write the new partition table and exit

Step#2 : Format the new disk using mkfs.ext3 command

To format Linux partitions using ext2fs on the new disk:

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1

Step#3 : Mount the new disk using mount command

First create a mount point /disk1 and use mount command to mount /dev/sdb1, enter:

# mkdir /disk1

# mount /dev/sdb1 /disk1

# df -H

Step#4 : Update /etc/fstab file

Open /etc/fstab file, enter:

# vi /etc/fstab

Append as follows:

/dev/sdb1               /disk1           ext3    defaults        1 2

Save and close the file.

Task: Label the partition

You can label the partition using e2label. For example, if you want to label the new partition /backup, enter

# e2label /dev/sdb1 /backup

You can use label name instead of partition name to mount disk using /etc/fstab:

LABEL=/backup /disk1 ext3 defaults 1 2

LABEL=/www /mnt/www ext4 defaults 1 2