Linux – How to create new partitions and format the hard drive in parted

linuxpartedpartition

I'm somewhat new to working with commandline tools when dealing with partitioning, so you'll have to excuse my newness.

I'm basically trying to create a new logical partition on /dev/sdb and would like to install ext3 on it. How would I do this, step by step, in parted? It's a brand-new hard drive with absolutely nothing on it.

Best Answer

First, make sure you understand the difference between primary, extended and logical partitions. To create a logical partition, you first need to create the extended partition that will contain it. If there's only one partition on a drive, there's no point in not making it primary. Below I'll give instructions for a logical partition; creating a primary partition is similar, only simpler, so you should be able to figure it out.

Parted isn't the easiest tool for a straightforward task, a dedicated partitioning tool such as cfdisk or even fdisk may be easier to apprehend. But here goes (untested, make sure you understand what's going on and don't proceed blindly if you see error messages). You'll need to enter the size of the device when creating the partition (parted displays it).

/dev/sdb
mklabel msdos
mkpart extended 0 123456
mkpart logical 0 123455

Then run mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb5 outside Parted.

If you choose to use cfdisk, you should be able to navigate its menu-driven interface. If you prefer fdisk, the sequence of instructions is:

n             create partition
e             extended
1             number (1–4)
<return>      accept default start
<return>      accept default end
n             create partition
l             logical
<return>      accept default start
<return>      accept default end
p             show the current table, review it
w             write changes
q             exit

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Create partition aligned using parted

In order to align partition with parted you can use --align option. Valid alignment types are:

none - Use the minimum alignment allowed by the disk type.
cylinder - Align partitions to cylinders.
minimal - Use minimum alignment as given by the disk topology information. This and the opt value will use layout information provided by the disk to align the logical partition table addresses to actual physical blocks on the disks. The min value is the minimum alignment needed to align the partition properly to physical blocks, which avoids performance degradation.
optimal Use optimum alignment as given by the disk topology information. This aligns to a multiple of the physical block size in a way that guarantees optimal performance.

Other useful tip is that you can set the size with percentages to get it aligned. Start at 0% and end at 100%. For example:

parted -a optimal /dev/sda mkpart primary 0% 4096MB

Copy disc layout and partitions to another drive

Working with the following conditions:

The original disk to copy is /dev/sdx
The original disk is properly partitioned/labeled/flagged
The filesystem contents of the original disk will be ignored
The destination disk, to copy to, will be /dev/sdy
The swap partition will be /dev/sdy4
The boot partition will be /dev/sdy1 mounted on /boot in the final system with ext3 filesystem
The root partition will be /dev/sdy2 mounted on / in the final system with ext4 filesystem
The users partition will be /dev/sdy3 mounted on /home in the final system with ext4 filesystem
The Debian system you want to copy has been tarred and gzipped to master_system.tar.gz
All files, including the script, will be stored in the working directory
The script will be executed from the same working directory
The script will be run as root, not sudo but either log in as root, or su in a terminal
There is a directory dupe_mnt in the working directory

To "copy" the original disk's partition structure, only needed one time, unless the structure is changed.

sfdisk --dump /dev/sdx > master_table

Since only you, at the system in question can determine what to copy from the Debian system that serves as the master, I'm not going to go into any of that. I know you won't copy the /proc, /dev/, and /sys directories, but there are sure to be others to exclude. Create that archive any way you choose, and name it master_system.tar.gz. This should include the /boot and /home directories in it. That's it, setup is done until you change either the Debian system you're copying, or the partitioning of the disk.

The script to create, called sys_replicate.sh is:

#!/bin/sh
target=$1;
sfdisk /dev/${target} < master_table;
# Format the swap partition
mkswap /dev/${target}4;
# Format the data partitions
mkfs.ext3 /dev/${target}1;
mkfs.ext4 /dev/${target}2;
mkfs.ext4 /dev/${target}3;
# Mount the target root filesystem and its parts
mount /dev/${target}2 dupe_mnt;
mount /dev/${target}1 dupe_mnt/boot;
mount /dev/${target}3 dupe_mnt/home;
# Copy the master system to the target
cd dupe_mnt;
tar -zxvpf ../master_system.tar.gz;
cd ..;
# Unmount the new system
cd ..
umount /dev/${target}3;
umount /dev/${target}1;
umount /dev/${target}2;
#done

The file sys_replicate.sh needs to have the execute bit set. chmod +x sys_replicate.sh

To use the process, once setup, connect the target disk. If it's a USB, make sure the system has recognized that it's available. If it's an internal HDD, obviously it'll require a reboot, and the system should find it automatically. Once connected, be VERY sure you know which /dev it is, since adding disks can rearrange the letters. Once it's ready, in a root shell, execute:

./sys_replicate.sh sdy

The device name /dev/sdy and /dev/sdx obviously will need to be changed to match your operational system. Also, as it turns out, sfdisk can handle GPT disks and extended partitions, so my earlier comment question was not needed. If you use a disk, as the copy, that is larger than the original, everything will still work. You will have wasted space that you can't easily reclaim, however, so take that into account before selecting the master disk to copy.

The creation of the partition structure, and the copying of the Debian system are independent, so changes to one do not require updating the other.

Best Answer

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