Recipe 9.16. Creating Linux Disk Partitions with fdisk
9.16.1 Problem
You need to partition a new hard drive, or
partition free space on an existing hard drive.
9.16.2 Solution
One way is to boot up a Knoppix disk and use QTParted, a great
graphical application that creates, deletes, moves, and resizes
partitions, without destroying the data. It even resizes NTFS
partitions.
You can also use fdisk. This example shows how
to create a primary partition:
# fdisk /dev/hda
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 2501.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Command (m for help): n
Command action
l logical (5 or over)
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 3
First cylinder (511-1232, default 511): 511
Last cylinder or +size or+sizeM or +sizeK (511-1232, default1232): +3000M
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl( ) to re-read the partition table
Syncing disks
#
That's it. You can change your mind right up to the
end, until you hit w to write the new partition
table to disk. At any time, you can hit m to see
a menu of commands. q always quits.
Before you can put any data on the new partition,
you'll need to reboot, then put a filesystem on it
(see the next recipe).
9.16.3 Discussion
Use Linux's fdisk only to
create Linux volumes. For Windows volumes, use
MS-DOS's fdisk.
Here is a list of the more commonly used Linux
fdisk options:
- m
-
Display help.
- p
-
Show the current partition table.
- d
-
Delete a partition.
- n
-
Create a new partition.
- w
-
Write the partition table to disk.
- l
-
Display the list of filesystem types.
- q
-
Quit fdisk without changing anything.
9.16.4 See Also
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