{"id":182,"date":"2008-11-10T20:55:23","date_gmt":"2008-11-10T08:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/p-s.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=182"},"modified":"2012-05-30T12:53:54","modified_gmt":"2012-05-30T00:53:54","slug":"using-cfdisk-to-prepare-a-usb-hdd-to-store-backups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/p-s.co.nz\/wordpress\/using-cfdisk-to-prepare-a-usb-hdd-to-store-backups\/","title":{"rendered":"Using cfdisk to prepare a USB HDD to store backups"},"content":{"rendered":"

I bought 2 1TB hard drives to use as backup storage. These couldn’t be mounted immediately because they had not been formatted. So what to do next to prepare them for use?<\/p>\n

NB the convention for labelling devices has apparently changed and may differ between kernel versions – so what is true for me now (Intrepid kernel 2.6.27-7) may not apply to you. So double check everything you do. You really do not want to wipe the wrong disk \ud83d\ude09 . I repeat, you really, really, really do not want to wipe the wrong disk. I am not an expert so double check everything.<\/p>\n

If using an external hard drive it will be called something like \/dev\/sdb
\nYour main HDD will be something like \/dev\/sda<\/p>\n

In older times IDE devices would have been HD … but now it is apparently consolidated on SD …<\/p>\n

One test that may be useful is
\nsudo fdisk -l<\/code>
\nMy output was:<\/p>\n

————————————————————————-<\/p>\n

Disk \/dev\/sda<\/strong>: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
\n255 heads, 63 sectors\/track, 121601 cylinders
\nUnits = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
\nDisk identifier: 0x0005bd91<\/p>\n

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
\n\/dev\/sda1 * 1 120845 970687431 83 Linux
\n\/dev\/sda2 120846 121601 6072570 5 Extended
\n\/dev\/sda5 120846 121601 6072538+ 82 Linux swap \/ Solaris<\/p>\n

Disk \/dev\/sdb<\/strong>: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
\n255 heads, 63 sectors\/track, 121601 cylinders
\nUnits = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
\nDisk identifier: 0x00000000<\/code>
\n
\nDisk \/dev\/sdb doesn’t contain a valid partition table<\/strong><\/p>\n

————————————————————————-<\/p>\n

dmesg<\/code>
\nis also useful for final confirmation<\/p>\n

OK now to do the deed (remember earlier warnings about checking):<\/p>\n

sudo cfdisk \/dev\/sdb<\/p>\n

\"cfdisk<\/p>\n

Then
\nn
\nto create New partition
\nThen
\np
\nto create new primary partition
\nEnter
\nto accept the size
\nBootable is OK – no harm leaving it selected or selecting it.
\nType should be Linux (83)
\nW
\nfor Write
\nthen
\nyes (not y) to proceed (NB warnings about checking earlier).
\nIt should say it wrote partition table to disk.
\nQ
\nfor Quit.<\/p>\n

If we rerun
\nsudo fdisk -l
\nwe might get something like:<\/p>\n

————————————————————————-<\/p>\n

Disk \/dev\/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
\n255 heads, 63 sectors\/track, 121601 cylinders
\nUnits = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
\nDisk identifier: 0x0005bd91<\/p>\n

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
\n\/dev\/sda1 * 1 120845 970687431 83 Linux
\n\/dev\/sda2 120846 121601 6072570 5 Extended
\n\/dev\/sda5 120846 121601 6072538+ 82 Linux swap \/ Solaris<\/p>\n

Disk \/dev\/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
\n255 heads, 63 sectors\/track, 121601 cylinders
\nUnits = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
\nDisk identifier: 0x00000000<\/p>\n

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
\n\/dev\/sdb1 * 1 121601 976760001 83 Linux<\/strong><\/code><\/p>\n

————————————————————————-<\/p>\n

Note that sdb no longer lacks a valid partition table.<\/p>\n

Then we need to format the disk (in my case I chose ext3 but ext4 works too):<\/p>\n

sudo mkfs.ext3 \/dev\/sdb1<\/code><\/p>\n

The system will then write the inode tables. The disk should then be unplugged and replugged to get it to mount.<\/p>\n

The new HDD was owned by root so I needed to add some folders and give my user permission to add\/edit data etc.
\nsudo chown username -R \/media\/disk\/<\/code>
\nThen open drive and add folders etc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I bought 2 1TB hard drives to use as backup storage. These couldn’t be mounted immediately because they had not been formatted. So what to do next to prepare them for use? NB the convention for labelling devices has apparently … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/p-s.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/p-s.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/p-s.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/p-s.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/p-s.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/p-s.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":914,"href":"http:\/\/p-s.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions\/914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/p-s.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/p-s.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/p-s.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}