Here's what I did:
- Installed the SATA hard disk in the enclosure
- Connected it via USB
- With Disk Utility I formatted the drive with an EXT4 file system
- Started using the hard drive without any issue (copying and deleting files from it)
When I was doing a random fdisk -l, I noticed that the drive didn't have a valid partition table:
Disk /dev/sdc: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Disk /dev/sdc doesn't contain a valid partition table
Is it safe to keep using the drive like this? Should I be worried? 🙂
Thanks!
Best Answer
Given what you've shared so far, you're fine. Essentially, you're using the entire disk as if it was a partition. Your system is smart enough to look at the first few bytes of the disk, and find "oh, gee, this device is being used as a partition."
Partitions are just ways to carve up a disk for different reasons; for most people's external storage needs, that would only matter if you wanted to boot an operating system from that drive.
What would be risky is if you take that drive and plugged it into either a mac or a pc; by default, these operating systems have a popup saying "the disk you've inserted doesn't have a valid file table, would you like me to initialize it?" If you accidentally hit the return/enter key, it may do just that. That said, it's the same risk even if you did put partitions on it.