how to detect and format new hard drive

thetiger2003 · 09-15-2010, 03:59 AM

hi
i added new hard drive on a machine running linux redhat linux 5 and i need to define and formate this drive to be usable

thnx and best regards

eco · 09-15-2010, 04:25 AM

Hi thetiger2003,

you can simply do (as root) an

Code:

# fdisk -l

That will list all the drives and their partitions.

If the drive had no partitions before hand, it will be easy to identify...

If you still can't find the drive, look into '/etc/fstab' and exclude the drisks you find from the 'fdisk -l' result. That should leave you with a single disk. If that disk has partitions, mount then read only and make sure you're not abut to wipe the wrong disk.

As of now, the drive will be sdz

Code:

# fdisk /dev/sdz

Create a partition (or more) and save. You might have to reboot for the kernel to take the changes.

Now, just use the following command to format it in ext3.

Code:

# mke2fs -j /dev/sdz

now add the disk to the fstab and mount it.

I hope this helps. I'd give you more details but i don't have a shell at hand.

jmc1987 · 09-15-2010, 04:27 AM

Are you using Raid or LVM or just trying to add an extra storage mount on what ever mount point you specify.

Formating it you can use with some tools not sure what distro you have so tools can vary. First you need to create the partition and format it befor you can mount it. you can use

Code:

tools to create the partition

parted
cfdisk
fdisk

tools to formate it
mke2fs         creates ext 2 or ext 3 with -j option 
mkfs.ext3      creates ext3
mkfs.reiserfs  Creats a ReiserrFS journaling files system
mkswap         makes swap space
tune2fs        Tunes a file system, setting some features like labels, journaling, and reserved block space.

Give more infomation what you are trying to do or what kind of setup you got going. But here are some things to get started. I sure your distro has most of those.

Jebram · 09-15-2010, 04:32 AM

Try this at a shell prompt/terminal:
sudo cfdisk /dev/sdb
If this shows a list of existing partitions or error message,
then "/dev/sdb" is not the device name of the fresh hard disk.
In that case try "/dev/sdc" and up until you find an
empty storage device of appropriate size. You can create volumes
there and later format them using a command like "sudo mkfs.ext3"
(There are many "mkfs.*" tools).
To better understand PC hard disk partitioning schemes,
you might want to read the relevant Wikipedia articles:
Master_boot_record
BIOS_Boot_Partition_(GPT)

thetiger2003 · 09-15-2010, 11:47 AM

divyashree · 09-15-2010, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thetiger2003

hi
i added new hard drive on a machine running linux redhat linux 5 and i need to define and formate this drive to be usable

thnx and best regards

run

Code:

fdisk -l

It'll show the drive as /dev/sdx or /dev/hdx {x - a,b,c}

If you bought a new hard drive it will show only one

/dev/sdx (if sata)

/dev/hdx (if pata)

So just get the device and format it .

if want to format
in vfat

Code:

mkfs.vfat /dev/<device>

in ext3

Code:

mkfs.ext3 /dev/<device>

and then make a directory and mount the new drive in it.as

Code:

mount -t vfat /dev/<device> /<path to directory>

Code:

mount -t ext3 /dev/<device> /<path to directory>

If you want multiple partitions you can use gparted or fdisk utility .