Hands‑On Linux Disk Management: Partitioning, Formatting, and Mounting

Basic Concepts

Linux stores all devices under /dev, so to use a disk you must partition it, format the partitions with a filesystem, and mount the filesystem to a directory.

(1) Partitioning with fdisk

For disks ≤2 TiB you can use fdisk (MBR). The workflow is:

sudo apt-get -y install fdisk   # Ubuntu
sudo yum -y install fdisk       # CentOS
fdisk -l                         # list disks
fdisk /dev/sdc                  # start partitioning
# Commands inside fdisk:
# d – delete a partition
# n – create a new partition (choose p for primary, size +2G, etc.)
# t – change partition type (e.g., 05 for FAT12)
# w – write changes
# q – quit without saving

Example: create a 2 GiB primary partition on /dev/sdc:

fdisk /dev/sdc
Command (m for help): n
Partition type
   p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1‑4, default 1): 1
First sector (2048‑41943039, default 2048): 2048
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048‑41943039, default 41943039): +2G
Created a new partition 1 of type "Linux" and size 2 GiB.

(2) Partitioning with gdisk (GPT)

For disks >2 TiB or when you prefer GPT, use gdisk which also works on MBR disks.

sudo apt-get -y install gdisk   # Ubuntu
sudo yum -y install gdisk       # CentOS
gdisk /dev/sdf                # start GPT partitioning
# Inside gdisk:
# n – add a partition (choose number, start sector, +1G size, type 8300)
# t – change type, l – list types (8200 swap, 8300 Linux, 8e00 LVM)
# w – write table

Example: add a 1 GiB Linux filesystem partition:

gdisk /dev/sdf
Command (? for help): n
Partition number (1‑128, default 1): 1
First sector (34‑8589934558, default = 2048): 2048
Last sector (2048‑8589934558, default = 8589932543): +1G
Current type is 8300 (Linux filesystem)
Changed type of partition to 'Linux filesystem'
Command (? for help): w
Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING PARTITIONS!!
Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y
OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/sdf.
The operation has completed successfully.

(3) Formatting Partitions

Formatting creates a filesystem on a partition. Common Linux filesystems are ext2/3/4 and XFS.

# List supported mkfs commands
mkfs -t ext4 /dev/vdb1          # create ext4
mkfs.ext4 /dev/vdb1             # preferred shortcut
mkfs -t xfs /dev/vdb1           # XFS example

Example creating an ext3 filesystem with a label and custom block size:

mkfs.ext2 -b 2k -L demoTest -j /dev/vdb1
# Output (truncated)
mke2fs 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021)
/dev/vdb1 has an ext3 filesystem
Created 1048576 blocks (2 k) and 131072 inodes
Filesystem UUID: a94d46ba-4f33-4ab3-9cd4-cfee31e78367

(4) Mounting Filesystems

Mount attaches a filesystem to a directory (mount point). The mount point should be an empty directory.

# Create mount point
mkdir /mnt/game
# Mount read‑only with sync and noatime options
mount -vrt ext2 -o sync,noatime /dev/vdb1 /mnt/game
# Verify
df -h | grep /mnt/game
# Try to write (should fail because of read‑only)
touch /mnt/game/abc.txt
# Output: touch: cannot touch '/mnt/game/abc.txt': Read‑only file system

Mount by label or UUID:

# Find label/UUID
blkid /dev/vdb2
# Mount using label
mount -v -L shebeiB /mnt/videos
# Mount using UUID
mount -v -U eaab835f-073a-4b98-ba44-68c8e49228e2 /mnt/videos

(5) Unmounting

# Simple unmount
umount /mnt/game
# Force unmount if busy
fuser -cu /mnt/game   # list processes
fuser -k /mnt/game     # kill them
umount -f /dev/vdb1

(6) Automatic Mounting with /etc/fstab

The file /etc/fstab defines devices to mount at boot.

# Example entries
/dev/vdb1   /mnt/game   ext2   auto,ro   0 0
LABEL=shebeiB   /mnt/videos   ext3   auto,rw   0 0
UUID=a14f72f0-d450-473a-aaa2-4f2b811b0500   /mnt/music   ext4   noauto,rw   0 0

After editing, run mount -a to apply.

(7) Special Device Mounts

ISO Image

mkdir /mnt/guazai1
mount -vo loop /path/to/image.iso /mnt/guazai1
# Verify
df -h | grep /mnt/guazai1
umount -f /dev/loop12

Windows Share (CIFS)

mkdir /mnt/guazai2
mount -t cifs -o username=JavaScript,password=54088 //192.168.0.144/images /mnt/guazai2
# Verify
df -h | grep /mnt/guazai2
umount //192.168.0.144/images

Conclusion

By mastering partitioning tools ( fdisk, gdisk), filesystem creation ( mkfs, mke2fs), mounting commands, and /etc/fstab configuration, you can reliably manage storage on Linux systems, including handling large disks, special devices, and network shares.