Disk and partition management – Linux File System – Linux operating system

Disk and partition management in Linux involves tasks such as creating, deleting, resizing, and formatting partitions on storage devices. Here’s an overview of disk and partition management in Linux:

1. Identifying Disks and Partitions:
   • Use the fdisk -l or lsblk command to list available disks and their partition information.
   • Disks are typically represented as /dev/sdX (e.g., /dev/sda, /dev/sdb), while partitions are represented as /dev/sdXY (e.g., /dev/sda1, /dev/sdb2).
2. Creating Partitions:
   • Use a partitioning tool such as fdisk or parted to create partitions on a disk. These tools provide interactive interfaces for creating and modifying partitions.
   • For example, you can use sudo fdisk /dev/sdX to start the fdisk tool for a specific disk, and then follow the prompts to create partitions.
3. Deleting Partitions:
   • Similarly, you can use fdisk or parted to delete existing partitions on a disk.
   • Be cautious when deleting partitions, as it permanently removes the partition and its data. Make sure you have a backup if needed.
4. Resizing Partitions:
   • To resize a partition, you can use tools like parted, resize2fs (for ext2/3/4 file systems), or ntfsresize (for NTFS file systems).
   • Resizing partitions may involve resizing the file system within the partition and adjusting the partition boundaries.
5. Formatting Partitions:
   • Once a partition is created or resized, you need to format it with a file system before you can use it.
   • Use commands like mkfs.ext4, mkfs.xfs, or mkfs.ntfs to format partitions with specific file system types.
6. Mounting Partitions:
   • After formatting, you can mount the partitions using the mounting procedure mentioned earlier.
   • Specify the partition device (e.g., /dev/sdXY) and the mount point (e.g., /mnt/mydisk) to mount the partition.
7. Automounting Partitions:
   • To have a partition automatically mounted at system startup, you can add an entry to the /etc/fstab file, as mentioned earlier.
8. Disk Management Tools:
   • Linux provides various disk management tools such as fdisk, parted, gparted (a graphical partitioning tool), and lsblk to help with disk and partition management tasks.
   • These tools offer different levels of functionality and ease of use, so choose the one that suits your requirements.

When performing disk and partition management tasks, it is important to exercise caution and double-check your actions to avoid accidental data loss or damage to the file system. Always make sure to back up critical data before making any changes to disk partitions.