Creating a Partition
 | Warning |
|---|
| | Do not attempt to create a partition on a device that is in
use. |
Before creating a partition, boot into rescue mode (or unmount any
partitions on the device and turn off any swap space on the device).
Start parted, where
/dev/hda is the device on which to create the
partition:
View the current partition table to determine if there is enough free
space:
If there is not enough free space, you can resize an existing
partition. Refer to the Section called Resizing a Partition for details.
Making the Partition
From the partition table, determine the start and end points of the
new partition and what partition type it should be. You can only have
four primary partitions (with no extended partition) on a device. If
you need more than four partitions, you can have three primary
partitions, one extended partition, and multiple logical partitions
within the extended. For an overview of disk partitions, refer to the
appendix An Introduction to Disk Partitions in
the Official Red Hat Linux Installation Guide.
For example, to create a primary partition with an ext3 file system from
1024 megabytes until 2048 megabytes on a hard drive type the following
command:
mkpart primary ext3 1024 2048 |
 | Tip |
|---|
| | If you use the mkpartfs command instead, the
file system will be created after the partition is created. However,
parted does not support creating an ext3 file
system. Thus, if you wish to create an ext3 file system, use
mkpart and create the file system with the
mkfs command as described
later. mkpartfs works for file system type
linux-swap. |
The changes start taking place as soon as you type
[Enter], so review the command before executing to
it.
After creating the partition, use the print command
to confirm that it is in the partition table with the correct partition
type, file system type, and size. Also remember the minor number of the
new partition so that you can label it. You should also view the output
of
to make sure the kernel recognizes the new partition.
Formating the Partition
The partition still does not have a file system. Create the
file system:
/sbin/mkfs -t ext3 /dev/hdb3 |
| Warning |
|---|
| | Formatting the partition will permanently destroy any data that
currently exists on the partition.
|
Labeling the Partition
Next, give the partition a label. For example, if the new partition is
/dev/hda3 and you want to label it
/work:
By default, the Red Hat Linux installation program uses the mount point of the
partition as the label to make sure the label is unique. You can use
any label you want.
Creating the Mount Point
As root, create the mount point:
Add to /etc/fstab
As root, edit the /etc/fstab file to include the
new partition. The new line should look similar to the following:
LABEL=/work /work ext3 defaults 1 2 |
The first column should contain LABEL=
followed by the label you gave the partition. The second column should
contain the mount point for the new partition, and the next column
should be the file type (for example, ext3 or swap). If you need more
information about the format, read the man page with the command
man fstab.
If the fourth column is the word
defaults, the partition will be
mounted at boot time. To mount the partition without rebooting, as
root, type the command:
