2010
05.26

Fdisk command does not supports partitioning of disk that has greater than 2 TB size. The parted tool supports GPT disk labels which can be used on disks larger than 2TB.
The example below demonstrates how to create a 6TB partition:

1. Use the parted tool to access the partition table of the device:

# parted /dev/sdj
Using /dev/sdj
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type ‘help’ to view a list of commands.
(parted)

2.

Once at the parted prompt, create a GPT label on the disk:

(parted) mklabel
Warning: The existing disk label on /dev/sdj will be destroyed and all data on this disk will be lost. Do you want to continue?
Yes/No? Yes
New disk label type?  [gpt]? gpt
(parted)

Note: This will remove any existing partition table and partitions on the device.
3. Use the print command to show the size of the disk as reported by parted.  We need this later:

(parted) print

Model: Linux device-mapper (dm)
Disk /dev/sdj: 6000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start  End  Size  File system  Name  Flags

4. Create a primary partition on the device.  In this example, the partition will encompass the entire disk (using size from the step above):

(parted) mkpart primary 0 6000GB

5. Unlike fdisk, you do not have to write out the partition table changes with parted.  Display your new partition and quit.

(parted) print

Model: Linux device-mapper (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-gpttest: 6000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start   End          Size         File system  Name     Flags
1      17.4kB  6000GB  6000GB               primary

(parted) quit
Information: Don’t forget to update /etc/fstab, if necessary.

6.

You can now create a filesystem on the device /dev/sdj1

7. Use mkfs.ext3 to make ext3 partition.

mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdj1

8. Use print option to displays the partition table.

parted /dev/sdj print

5 comments so far

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  1. Nice piece of work there geo! Very handy when fdisk lets you down with disks above 2T

  2. @Fayad
    thnx bro..

  3. Very good article! thank you to the author for it! In it interesting and useful information it is possible often times re-read it! I will advise to read it all friends. It will be very useful at writing of the article. Very much thankful you.

  4. thnx… glad that it was helpful for you.

  5. One quick question. After doing the partition how do I continue. Installaling redhat linux. I did everything and finally what happened is its overwriting everything.

    Urgent help is needed and I am new to setting up server on larder disk space.

    Thanks,
    Naveen

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