Re: Is partitioning required?

On 12 June 2011 15:32, Tony Pursell <ajp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sun, 2011-06-12 at 08:34 -0400, Rashkae wrote:
On 06/12/2011 03:45 AM, Robert Spanjaard wrote:
I just installed a new harddisk. Because I was planning to use it as a
single large volume, I forgot to partition it. I just clicked Format in
the Disk Utility, and it works.
But now, "sudo fdisk -l" shows the following information:

---
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/sdc: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00021241

    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *           1      121601   976760001   83  Linux
---

Disk dev/sdb is the new harddisk.
Disk /dev/sdc is a different harddisk, where I did create a single large
partition before formatting.

Both disks are working fine, but still, I wonder if I should have created
a partition table first.

Not strictly necessary, but a very good idea nontheless.  It can be
helpful, for example, if you have a boot sector that bootloaders can
install on.  Also, without a partition table, other low level disk
utilities or OS may, at some point, simply overwrite parts of the hard
drive without warning (as they would assume the hd is blank)


Have a look at it with gparted, and use that to put a partition on it,
which will be /dev/sdb1.  Formatting the disk probably just put it into
512 byte blocks.  Before you can write to it, sensibly, you need a file
system on it, say ext4, but it could be FAT32, ntfs, ext3 or any other
file system recognised by the OS.

Be careful!

While this advice is correct, it will erase the disk & you will lose
everything on it, effectively irretrievably.

You /can/ use an unpartitioned disk if you wish, as others have said.
It's just slightly risky, if something decides to try to make it
bootable or something, tries to manipulate the nonexistent boot record
or partition table and trashes your filesystem.

I'd advise copying any data off it, repartitioning as one big primary
ext4 volume, and then putting its contents back.


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