Adding A Disk To Linux

The following tutorial will show you how to add a disk in Linux, stepping you through the creation of a partition table, before adding a partition and adding a filesystem to it. Then set it up to automatically mount on boot.

Steps

sudo apt install parted

sudo parted /dev/sd[x]

Use the print command to output information of the disk (and check you got the correct one)

print

Error: /dev/sdd: unrecognised disk label
Model: ATA WDC WD80EFBX-68A (scsi)                                        
Disk /dev/sdd: 8002GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: unknown
Disk Flags:

The first thing I want to do is create a GPT partition table.

mktable gpt

If the disk does not have a partition table, this will proceed without any output. If the disk already has a partition table (which it most likely will, unless its a fresh disk you just bought, then you will get the following output:

Warning: The existing disk label on /dev/sdd will be destroyed and all data on this disk will be lost. Do you want to continue?
Yes/No?

Just type in Yes to confirm.

Now if I print, I will see the gpt partition table:

(parted) print                                                            
Model: ATA WDC WD80EFBX-68A (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdd: 8002GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start  End  Size  File system  Name  Flags

Now I am going to create the first partition with fdisk, because its easy to create a 100% partition automatically.

Start by quitting out of parted:

quit

Then run fdisk on the drive:

sudo fdisk /dev/sd[x]

Print out the drive to make sure your editing the correct one:

p

Disk /dev/sdd: 7.3 TiB, 8001563222016 bytes, 15628053168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD80EFBX-68A
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: B8BCB3F0-D386-4BF9-90DC-D25FE18025C0

Create a new partition with:

n

At the prompts, just keep pressing enter to use the defaults and create a partition that fills the drive:

Partition number (1-128, default 1): 
First sector (34-15628053134, default 2048): 
Last sector, +/-sectors or +/-size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-15628053134, default 15628053134): 

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux filesystem' and of size 7.3 TiB.

If you need to make the partition bootable (e.g. its not just a data storage disk) then set the bootable flag with:

a

Write your changes:

w

Create the filesystem

sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdd1

Automatically Mount (Add to fstab)

Create a directory of where you want the drive to be mounted. E.g.

sudo mkdir /mnt/hdd1

Run the following command to get the UUID of the filesystem you just created:

sudo blkid

/dev/sda1: UUID="ae36618b-af0c-420b-ac6b-5da4dbf12d32" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="511b3de5-01"
/dev/sda5: UUID="2434627b-ff45-4c82-82d3-f07e3afa63d4" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="511b3de5-05"
/dev/sdb: UUID="xLEzyA-ipa5-ec3a-wfyB-2fTo-Efx0-rNnY15" TYPE="LVM2_member"
/dev/sdc: UUID="YdmHoI-gikF-lstq-Hjl3-831c-5yM2-TuCHM9" TYPE="LVM2_member"
/dev/mapper/vg1-lvm_raid1_rimage_0: UUID="df167969-d147-42e3-9379-bfc3b305e24b" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/mapper/vg1-lvm_raid1_rimage_1: UUID="df167969-d147-42e3-9379-bfc3b305e24b" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/mapper/vg1-lvm_raid1: UUID="df167969-d147-42e3-9379-bfc3b305e24b" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sdd1: UUID="a623e4b0-2b13-4c15-ba9a-01f4b76da4f2" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="d05678b8-59f0-4c44-95a4-4a244d70b77a"

Copy the UUID beside your partition name (e.g. /dev/sdd1) and add it to your fstab like so:

sudo editor /etc/fstab

# Mount hdd1
UUID="a623e4b0-2b13-4c15-ba9a-01f4b76da4f2"     /mnt/hdd1       ext4    defaults        0       2

You don't have to add the comments, but I find they make life easier. Obviously if you used a different filesystem, or mount point, adjust accordingly.

Now mount:

sudo mount -a

You probably want to set yourself as the owner so that you can now write to the filesystem

sudo chown $USER:$USER /mnt/hdd1

References

• Fedora Docs - Creating a disk partition in Linux