Lecture # 27 - Disk Partitioning and Disk Management

Disk Partition:

Disk partition refers to creation of one or more regions on secondary storage. This is created to manage regions separately. Disk partition is the first step of preparing a new installed disk and and is done before creating the file system.

  1. Data Partition:

    Data partition refers to normal Linux system data including the root partition containing all data to start up and run the system.

  2. Swap Partition:

    Swap partitions refers to expansion of computer's physical memory, an extra memory on the hard disk.

Adding Additional Disk Drive in VM:

  • Open VMwarwe.

  • Click on 'Edit virtual machine settings'.

  • Click on 'Add...' button.

  • Select 'Hard Disk' and click on' Next >' button.

  • Select the type of your choice and click on 'Next >' button. I am using SCSI.

  • Select 'Create a new virtual disk' and click on 'Next >' button.

  • Choose the disk size and click on 'Next >' button.

  • Choose the location to store the disk file and click the 'Finish' button.

  • Now start your virtual machine.

Commands:

  • To see the disk is attached or not:

    To see that the new disk is attached or not lsblk is used. The selected line shows that the new disk is attached.

  • List the partition table:

    To list the partition table sudo fdisk -l is used.

  • List the partition table of specified disk:

    To list the partition table of a specified disk sudo fdisk -l [disk-name] is used.

fdisk:

  • Enter fdisk command prompt:

    To enter fdisk command prompt sudo fdisk [disk-name] is used.

  • List known partition types:

    To list kown partition types l is used in the fdisk command prompt.

  • Help:

    For help m is used in the fdisk command prompt.

  • Print Partition Table:

    To print partition table p is used in the fdisk command prompt.

  • Create a Partition:

    To create a partition or add a new partition n is used in the fdisk commnd prompt.

  • Save table and quit:

    To save the table and quit w is used in the fdisk command prompt.

Command After fdisk:

  • See the updated table without rebooting:

    To see the altered partition table without rebooting the system partprobe is used.

  • Attach a file system:

    To attach a file system with a partition mkfs.ext4 [partition-name] is used. To attach a file system to the partition you'll have to first move to the root user using sudo bash .

  • Mount with mount-point:

    To mount the partition mount [partition-name] [directory-name] is used.

File Systems:

  • ext4:

    The fourth extended filesystem, commonly used in Linux distributions due to its reliability, performance, and support for large file sizes and volumes.

  • NTFS:

    The New Technology File System, developed by Microsoft and commonly used in Windows operating systems. It supports features like file compression, encryption, and access control lists (ACLs).

  • FAT32:

    The File Allocation Table 32-bit file system, commonly used in removable storage devices due to its compatibility with various operating systems and devices.

  • exFAT:

    The Extended File Allocation Table file system, developed by Microsoft and designed for flash drives and external storage devices with large capacities.

  • XFS:

    A high-performance journaling file system commonly used in Linux environments for handling large volumes of data and supporting advanced features like metadata checksums and online resizing.

  • Btrfs:

    The B-tree filesystem, developed for Linux and designed for scalability, reliability, and support for advanced features like snapshots, checksums, and RAID-like functionality.

10
Subscribe to my newsletter

Read articles from Abdullah Bin Altaf directly inside your inbox. Subscribe to the newsletter, and don't miss out.

Written by

Abdullah Bin Altaf
Abdullah Bin Altaf