On Linux distributions, fdisk is the best tool to manage disk partitions. fdisk is a text based utility.
Using fdisk you can create a new partition, delete an existing partition, or change existing partition.Using fidsk you are allowed to create a maximum of four primary partition, and any number of logical partitions, based on the size of the disk.
Keep in mind that any single partition requires a minimum size of 40MB.
In this article, let us review how to use fdisk command using practical examples.
Warning: Don’t delete, modify, or add partition, if you don’t know what you are doing. You will lose your data!
1. View All Existing Disk Partitions Using fdisk -l
Before you create a new partition, or modify an existing partition, you might want to view all available partition in the system.Use fdisk -l to view all available partitions as shown below.
# fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0xf6edf6ed Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 1959 15735636 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sda2 1960 5283 26700030 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/sda3 5284 6528 10000462+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda4 6529 9729 25712032+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sda5 * 1960 2661 5638752 83 Linux /dev/sda6 2662 2904 1951866 83 Linux /dev/sda7 2905 3147 1951866 83 Linux /dev/sda8 3148 3264 939771 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sda9 3265 5283 16217586 b W95 FAT32
The above will list partitions from all the connected hard disks. When you have more than one disk on the system, the partitions list are ordered by the device’s /dev name. For example, /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc and so on.
2. View Partitions of a Specific Hard Disk using fdisk -l /dev/sd{a}
To view all partitions of the /dev/sda hard disk, do the following.# fdisk -l /dev/sda
View all fdisk Commands Using fdisk Command 'm'
Use fdisk command m, to view all available fdisk commands as shown below.# fdisk /dev/sda The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 9729. There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024, and could in certain setups cause problems with: 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO) 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK) Command (m for help): m Command action a toggle a bootable flag b edit bsd disklabel c toggle the dos compatibility flag d delete a partition l list known partition types m print this menu n add a new partition o create a new empty DOS partition table p print the partition table q quit without saving changes s create a new empty Sun disklabel t change a partition's system id u change display/entry units v verify the partition table w write table to disk and exit x extra functionality (experts only)
3. Delete a Hard Disk Partition Using fdisk Command 'd'
Let us assume that you like to combine several partitions (for example, /dev/sda6, /dev/sda7 and /dev/sda8) into a single disk partition. To do this, you should first delete all those individual partitions, as shown below.# fdisk /dev/sda The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 9729. There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024, and could in certain setups cause problems with: 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO) 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK) Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0xf6edf6ed Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 1959 15735636 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sda2 1960 5283 26700030 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/sda3 5284 6528 10000462+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda4 6529 9729 25712032+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sda5 * 1960 2661 5638752 83 Linux /dev/sda6 2662 2904 1951866 83 Linux /dev/sda7 2905 3147 1951866 83 Linux /dev/sda8 3148 3264 939771 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sda9 3265 5283 16217586 b W95 FAT32 Command (m for help): d Partition number (1-9): 8 Command (m for help): d Partition number (1-8): 7 Command (m for help): d Partition number (1-7): 6 Command (m for help): w The partition table has been altered! Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table. WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy. The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8) Syncing disks.
4. Create a New Disk Partition with Specific Size Using fdisk Command 'n'
Once you’ve deleted all the existing partitions, you can create a new partition using all available space as shown below.# fdisk /dev/sda
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 9729.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Command (m for help): n
First cylinder (2662-5283, default 2662):
Using default value 2662
Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (2662-3264, default 3264):
Using default value 3264
In the above example, fdisk n command is used to create new partition with the specific size. While creating a new partition, it expects following two inputs.
- Starting cylinder number of the partition to be create (First cylinder).
- Size of the partition (or) the last cylinder number (Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size ).
Command (m for help): w The partition table has been altered! Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table. WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy. The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8) Syncing disks.
5. View the Size of an existing Partition Using fdisk -s
As shown below, fdisk -s displays the size of the partition in blocks.# fdisk -s /dev/sda7 4843566
The above output corresponds to about 4900MB.
6. Toggle the Boot Flag of a Partition Using fdisk Command a
fdisk command displays the boot flag of each partition. When you want to disable or enable the boot flag on the corresponding partition, do the following.If you don’t know why are you are doing this, you’ll mess-up your system.
# fdisk /dev/sda The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 9729. There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024, and could in certain setups cause problems with: 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO) 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK) Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0xf6edf6ed Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 1959 15735636 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sda2 1960 5283 26700030 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/sda3 5284 6528 10000462+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda4 6529 9729 25712032+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sda5 * 1960 2661 5638752 83 Linux /dev/sda6 3265 5283 16217586 b W95 FAT32 /dev/sda7 2662 3264 4843566 83 Linux Partition table entries are not in disk order Command (m for help): a Partition number (1-7): 5 Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0xf6edf6ed Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 1959 15735636 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sda2 1960 5283 26700030 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/sda3 5284 6528 10000462+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda4 6529 9729 25712032+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sda5 1960 2661 5638752 83 Linux /dev/sda6 3265 5283 16217586 b W95 FAT32 /dev/sda7 2662 3264 4843566 83 Linux Partition table entries are not in disk order Command (m for help):As seen above, the boot flag is disabled on the partition /dev/sda5.
7. Fix Partition Table Order Using fdisk Expert Command 'f'
When you delete a logical partition, and recreate it again, you might see the “partition out of order” issue. i.e “Partition table entries are not in disk order” error message.For example, when you delete three logical partitions (sda6, sda7 and sda8), and create a new partition, you might expect the new partition name to be sda6. But, the system might’ve created the new partition as sda7. This is because, after the partitions are deleted, sda9 partition has been moved as sda6 and the free space is moved to the end.
To fix this partition order issue, and assign sda6 to the newly created partition, execute the expert command f as shown below.
$ fdisk /dev/sda The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 9729. There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024, and could in certain setups cause problems with: 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO) 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK) Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0xf6edf6ed Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 1959 15735636 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sda2 1960 5283 26700030 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/sda3 5284 6528 10000462+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda4 6529 9729 25712032+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sda5 * 1960 2661 5638752 83 Linux /dev/sda6 3265 5283 16217586 b W95 FAT32 /dev/sda7 2662 3264 4843566 83 Linux Partition table entries are not in disk order Command (m for help): x Expert command (m for help): f Done. Expert command (m for help): w The partition table has been altered! Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table. WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy. The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8) Syncing disks.
Once the partition table order is fixed, you’ll not get the “Partition table entries are not in disk order” error message anymore.
# fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0xf6edf6ed Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 1959 15735636 c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sda2 1960 5283 26700030 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/sda3 5284 6528 10000462+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda4 6529 9729 25712032+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sda5 * 1960 2661 5638752 83 Linux /dev/sda6 2662 3264 4843566 83 Linux /dev/sda7 3265 5283 16217586 b W95 FAT32
8. Format the Partitions Using mkfs Command
After the partition is created, format it using the mkfs command as shown below.#mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda5
9. Mount the Partitions Using mount Command
After the partition is formated then it can be mounted using the mount command as shown below.Create the mount point.
# mkdir <mount_point>
#mkdir /test1
Mount the mount point.
#mount /dev/sda5 /test1
10. Add the Partition entry to the '/etc/fstab' file
Add the partition entry to the “/etc/fstab” file
<device> <mount_point> <filesystem_type> <options> <dump_frequency> <fsck_order>
/dev/sda5 /test1 ext4 default 0 0
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