adding a new hard disk

[jkmartha]

distro - redhat enterprise 4.
i want to add another hard disk (ATA) to my system. how should i go about it ? how to partition and format ? pliz write the procedures.

[dylunio]

Once you have connected the drive to you machine you can partition and format it in three ways, useing command line programs like fdisk or cfdisk, or gui programs like QTParted.


This is how to partition an format in fdisk:

NOTE: From now on, I will assume that your new hard disk is /dev/hdb. If this is not the case, adjust your methods accordingly.

fdisk /dev/hdb

you should get some output.

Now to settup a partition do

Command (m for help):n
Command action
   l   logical (5 or over)
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Selected partition 1
First cylinder (7-19452, default 7):
Using default value 7
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (7-6533, default 6533): +400M

This will create a 400MB partition for you, which will be /dev/hdb1. THen if you want to create another one just do:

Command (m for help):n
Command action
   l   logical (5 or over)
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Selected partition 2
First cylinder (7-19452, default 7):
Using default value 7
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (7-6533, default 6533): +5140M

which will create a 5GB partition on /dev/hdb2

then to commit the changes:

Command (m for help):w

Then to format it:

format reiserfs:

mkreiserfs /dev/hdb2

format ext3:

mke2fs -j /dev/hdb2

format ext2:

mke2fs /dev/hdb2

THe other partitioners are slightly easier to use, but I've covered the most basic one here so that you know how to partition and fromat a new disk

[variant]

insert the hard disk and partiton it however you want one big reiserfs partition is fine for backups or whatever. dont forget to add it to the fstab so you can mount it more easily or automount etc

[jkmartha]

thanx