Filesystems – How to Know if /dev/hda2 is Primary or Extended Partition

devicesfilesystemspartition

If all four primary partitions exist on an IDE drive, they are numbered
as follows:

  • /dev/hda1
  • /dev/hda2
  • /dev/hda3
  • /dev/hda4

We have also the partitions on a disk with one primary partition and the sole extended partition might be numbered as
follows:

  • /dev/hda1 (primary)
  • /dev/hda2 (extended)

This naming strategy leads to confusion :
How it is named : /dev/hda2 in both of cases :

  • Primary partition
  • Extended Partition

Another way to express the issue : How to distinct if it is primary or extended partition

Best Answer

From terminal, you type parted /dev/hda then type print as result: 

Number  Start   End    Size   Type     File system  Flags     
 1      32.3kB  107MB  107MB  primary  ext3         boot, raid
 2      107MB   250GB  250GB  primary               raid
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