This article explains how to format a hard drive in Linux using fsck, mkfs, and standard commands fdisk. You can use the procedure described, reformat the disk hard from high school or format the disk before starting the installation of the system.
Instructions and Preparation
1. When formatted the hard disk, the disk will be lost. In this sense, it is very important to make backup of anything, which can subsequently.
2. To reformat the drive, you need access to the root directory. All the commands used in this tutorial are executed from the command-line (Terminal) as root. Perhaps you want to also note the size (capacity in MB) disk.
3. Linux refers to the hard disk drive as "hdx" or "sdx", where x is the drive letter starting, that is the order in which the disc is added or detected by the team. The prefix "hd" is used for the IDE and the leg (previously only ATA) and SATA, SCSI and USB is used the prefix "sd". Usually multiple is also included at the end of "hdx" or "sdx" to denote the different partitions on the same physical disk, but formatted, only should know is the drive letter that you want to format.
4. The examples given in the instructions are for a team with two IDE hard disks connected as master and slave. Disks are 'hda' and 'hdb'. You will need to specify the drive letter that you want to format for your own setup. Us hdb disk format. For all examples regardless of the indication of the disk, replace "hdb".
5. You can see all the drives connected to the system through the command "ls/dev/hd **" or "ls/dev/sd **" as they are the units (all IDE drives and SATA drives, etc.). The output of this command appears in the example, such as "/ dev/hda/dev/hda1/dev/sdb/dev/hda2/dev/hdb1". The operating system is installed on the hda, which has two partition (hda1 and hda2), and there are sdb1 and hdb for a partition.
Using Fdisk
6. First, use the command fdisk delete all old partitions on the disk and create a new one. Changes made using fdisk are only made permanent if the command run "in" before the closing, so feel free to be... a little, if you wish. If at any time you are blocked, you can close the program without saving changes by pressing "Ctrl" and press "c".
7. At the command prompt, type "fdisk/dev/sdb", replacing "hdb" with the drive letter. When it opens, the fdisk can assign a couple of warnings, which can be ignored. Then gives you a message that looks like this: command (m aid):
8. Enter "p", may show the partition table of the disk. The first line of the output of the command "p" also specifies the size of the disk. This is a good way of exactly what they are working with the correct drive.
9. If you already have all the partitions on the disk, it will be displayed as the last lines of command "p". In our example, this is seen as "/ dev/sdb1", used by some of the data in the file system and the size of partition.
10. To delete all existing partitions, press the "d" and then "Enter". It shall request the number of the partition that you want to delete. The number of partitions is a number that is followed by the hdb, so in our example, we went to 1. In the case of multiple partitions, repeat the command "d" for each of them. You can always display the partition, again with the "p" table.
11. After deleting the existing partitions on the drive, you can enter a new one. Type "n" and press "Enter". Then press "p" to create a primary partition. The program asks for the number of the partition; Enter the value "1". You are now asked what partition of cylinders must begin in. At the beginning of the disk is the default, so I hit "enter". You are then prompted the last cylinder. End of the drive is the default setting, can simply press "Enter" again.
12. They are now back at the fdisk command line. "P" is used to verify the contents of the partition table. You will now see a new partition at the bottom of the exit. In this example, the list as "/ dev/sdb1."
13. Now we need to define the type of file system for the new partition using the "t". You will be asked the hexadecimal code of the file system you want to use. We will use the standard Linux ext2 file, which is the ' 83. "If something unusual and know the specific file system you want to use, you can press"L"to see all the codes that are one or two characters of digits 0-9 and letters (f)."
14. Now simply issue the command "in the" write the new partition table and exit fdisk.
Create new file with mkfs
15. Now you must create a file system on the disk. You can do this by using the command "mkfs".
16. At the command prompt, type "mkfs-t ext2 /"Done!!
