How to delete the created Partition in Linux.

Aakas · 03-01-2014, 08:30 AM

I create the partition with the following name and commands
fdisk /dev/sda -->as the disk is SATA type

-->to diaplay the list of partition
:n -->to create a new partition with certain size
Now anyone please advice me how to delete the partition?
Thankyou in advance.

tronayne · 03-01-2014, 08:46 AM

Easy way is to, as root, use cfdisk; it's a lot easier to see what you're doing than fdisk is. You open a terminal window (or get into run level 3) and

Code:

cfdisk /dev/sda

You'll see something similar to this (yours will not look exactly like mine):

Code:

                                     cfdisk (util-linux 2.21.2)

                                        Disk Drive: /dev/sda
                                 Size: 500107862016 bytes, 500.1 GB
                       Heads: 255   Sectors per Track: 63   Cylinders: 60801

     Name           Flags         Part Type    FS Type              [Label]            Size (MB)
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     sda1                          Primary     ext4                                     15998.17    
     sda2                          Primary     swap                                     15998.17
     sda3                          Primary     ext4                                     20003.89
     sda5                          Logical     ext4                                     20003.89
     sda6                          Logical     ext4                                     20003.89
     sda7                          Logical     ext4                                     20003.89
     sda8                          Logical     ext4                                    100002.96
     sda9                          Logical     ext4                                    100002.96
     sda10                         Logical     ext4                                    188087.48
                                   Logical     Free Space                                   2.62   *

<bunch of space>

      [ Bootable ]  [  Delete  ]  [   Help   ]  [ Maximize ]  [  Print   ]  [   Quit   ]
      [   Type   ]  [  Units   ]  [  Write   ]

                            Quit program without writing partition table

Move the cursor to the partition you want to delete (the line is highlighted) and then move to or type Delete. You will also need to Write the partition table to actually change it.

Read though the manual page before you do this, note that if you delete a partition, it's gone and you won't be able to get back any data that was there easily.

When you're partitioning a drive for Linux it's a good idea to have a reasonable size for the operating system (the distribution software) of at least 15G, maybe 20G would be better -- as time goes on, you'll be adding software that will go into that partition. Create a separate partition for swap spaces (rule of thumb, 2x RAM size), a 20G partition for /home and maybe a couple of others for different purposes (those large ones above are for MySQL/MariaDB and PostgreSQL. Think through your needs before you do the partitioning.

Oh, by the way, you get into run level 3 like this:

Code:

log in as root
init 3

which will reboot the system and you'll have a console screen (no X running). Log in as root (be careful!) and use cfdisk to delete that partition you want gone (it won't be /dev/sda1 or /dev/sda2, those are the root and swap usually). When you're all done, simply enter

Code:

init 6

which will reboot the system to the graphic mode.

Hope this helps some.

EDDY1 · 03-01-2014, 04:17 PM

Can you post output of fdisk -l?

syg00 · 03-01-2014, 07:39 PM

Simply read when you get into fdisk - the prompt is

Quote:

Command (m for help):

If you do that, you find out the command to delete a partition.

lahirushanaka · 03-01-2014, 10:24 PM

fidsk -cu /dev/sda

after login to it, read help, then you can delete what ever partition you want

Aakas · 03-02-2014, 12:06 AM

Thanks tronayne cfdisk works well.