Question: I have a disk that is greater than 2TB size. I cannot create a partition on this >2TB disk using fdisk. Can you explain me with an example on how to create a partition on a disk that is larger than 2TB using parted and GPT format?
Answer: If you are using fdisk to create partition on a >2TB disk, you’ll get the following warning message.
# fdisk /dev/sdb Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite) WARNING: The size of this disk is 5.9 TB (5908688535552 bytes). DOS partition table format can not be used on drives for volumes larger than (2199023255040 bytes) for 512-byte sectors. Use parted(1) and GUID partition table format (GPT).
Creating 2TB partition using Fdisk
The size of the disk in this example is roughly 6 TB. You can still create a partition in this disk for 2TB using fdisk as shown below.
# fdisk /dev/sdb1
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-718357, default 1):
Using default value 1
Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (1-267349, default 267349):
Using default value 267349
As you see above, even though there are 718357 cylinders available on this disk (this is for total of roughly 6TB), the last cylinder value it shows is only 267349 (which is roughly close to 2TB in this example).
So, fdisk has created a partition of 2 TB as shown below (even though the disk size is around 6 TB).
Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sdb: 5908.7 GB, 5908688535552 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 718357 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: 0x3dffd626 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 1 267349 2147480811 83 Linux
Set Partition Table to GPT using Parted mklabel
In our case, we need to create a partition >2TB. So, we should use parted command.
Before creating the partition command, we should set the disk label to GPT.
GPT stands for GUID partition table format (GPT).
Use parted’s mklabel command to set disk label to GPT as shown below.
# parted /dev/sdb GNU Parted 2.1 Using /dev/sdb Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands. (parted) print Error: /dev/sdb: unrecognised disk label (parted) mklabel gpt (parted) print Model: Unknown (unknown) Disk /dev/sdb: 5909GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: gpt Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
Create >2TB Partition using Parted mkpart
Use parted’s mkpart command as shown below to create partition that is greater than 2TB. In this example, we are creating a partition that is roughly of 6TB in size.
# parted /dev/sdb (parted) mkpart primary 0GB 5909GB (parted) print Model: Unknown (unknown) Disk /dev/sdb: 5909GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: gpt Number Start End Size File system Name Flags 1 1049kB 5909GB 5909GB primary
To understand how to use parted command effectively, refer to: 9 Linux Parted Command Examples.
Just for curiosity, let us see how this >2TB partition is displayed in fdisk. As you see below, it still shows the size as roughly 2TB (under the Blocks columns). However there is a + at the end indicating that this is greater than 2TB. The System column displays “GPT”.
# fdisk /dev/sdb Command (m for help): print Disk /dev/sdb: 5908.7 GB, 5908688535552 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 718357 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 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 1 267350 2147483647+ ee GPT
Format and Mount the Partition
Use mkfs to format the partition. This will take some time depending the size of the partition. You’ll see that it is “Writing inode tables” and the counter will keep increasing. In this example, it roughly took around 15 minutes to complete the mkfs.
# mkfs /dev/sdb1
mke2fs 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
360644608 inodes, 1442550528 blocks
72127526 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=4294967296
44024 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8192 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968,
102400000, 214990848, 512000000, 550731776, 644972544
Writing inode tables: 3955/44024
Writing inode tables: 5022/44024
Writing inode tables: 7218/44024
Writing inode tables: done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
This filesystem will be automatically checked every 23 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
Finally, mount this >2TB partition.
# mkdir /data # mount /dev/sdb1 /data # df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda1 127G 1.6G 119G 2% / /dev/sdb1 5.3T 59M 5.1T 1% /data
My name is Ramesh Natarajan. I will be posting instruction guides, how-to, troubleshooting tips and tricks on Linux, database, hardware, security and web. My focus is to write articles that will either teach you or help you resolve a problem. Read more about
Comments on this entry are closed.
I want to install Lamp on my computer. Intel i7 running on MINT 12.04 (Ubuntu 12.04).
Something is going wrong with the elements compability. Maybe I did installed and uninstalled those elements to many times. Do I have to reformat my disk? And start everything from scatch?
It is usefull a reminder. clearly expressed.
I think it should be GPT instead of GTP.
Hi,
Thanks a lot, very useful article..
thanks again
Hi, remember to align partitions according to the block-sizes of the underlaying (or should I say, the upper level) blocksystem’s: ie. common filesystem block-size (512 bytes), HW RAID vdisk block-size (ie. 64kb) and possibly the popular optimal blocksizes of SSDs (4kb). If partitions are misaligned to the hardware/other blocksystems, there will be unnessessary IO operations as the requested block may span over to the neighbouring block, needing to read the adjacent block too.
To use the sectors as units instead of blocks:
fdisk -u s /dev/sda
then start the first partition from sector 1024, 2048 (1 MB with 512 bytes / sec ) or 4096 etc.
parted has an align-check command :
(parted) align-check minimal 1
1 aligned
and with EXT4 check the man-page for stripe-width parameter.
When you draw a picture or visualize the blocksystem’s on top of each other, the picture says more than thousand words.
Can you write an article about partition alignment too, thanks!
@Frank,
Thanks for pointing out the typo. It is fixed now.
Very nice article..
Another way to accomplish the same ultimate effect is to use LVM. To do this, go ahead and make three 2TB partitions with fdisk, and set their types to physical volume. Then, do your pvcreate on all three partitions, stick all of them in a volume group with vgcreate, and then make your logical volume with lvcreate.
Finally, mkfs on this logical volume, and have fun. 🙂
Or you can just add the whole disk as a physical volume to an LVM volume group. And then just create logical volumes. These are very easy to resize (even while the file system is mounted).
Hi Ramesh Natarajan,
I Have external hard disk 4 tb with full with some data, i want to mount that hard disk in linux system i run this command ‘parted /dev/sdc print ‘ it doesn’t show any thing .please give some advice how to mount that disk
# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sdc: 4000.7 GB, 4000786149376 bytes
256 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60562 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16128 * 4096 = 66060288 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 266306 4294967292 ee EFI GPT
# parted /dev/sdc print
Warning: Device /dev/sdc has a logical sector size of 4096. Not all parts of
GNU Parted support this at the moment, and the working code is HIGHLY
EXPERIMENTAL.
Error: Unable to open /dev/sdc – unrecognised disk label.
Information: Don’t forget to update /etc/fstab, if necessary.
Thanks … very useful info
what you refer to as “format” is filesystem creation. formatting is something else, but often confused with filesystem creation.
Thanks !
This was really helpful and clearly explaned.
I love you linux guys (I really do), it is wonderful to see everybody helping each others. That does not happen in windoze world.
Good Stuff.. Useful article
Thanks a bunch for this! Great site.
Thanks for the info in a concise, clear and logical presentation.
Thanks for posting this article. It helped me a lot!!
A minor correction. As I understand it, GPT disks don’t have partition types anymore, they are all “primary”. Command ‘mkpart primary’ doesn’t create a primary partition like it does on msdos disks, it just creates a partition called primary. You can just as well use command
(parted) mkpart Parted-FUN! 21476MB 4000787MB
(parted) print
Model: ATA ST4000DM000-1F21 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdf: 4000787MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1.05MB 17181MB 17180MB ext4 raid-var
2 17181MB 21476MB 4295MB raid-swap
3 21476MB 4000786MB 3979310MB Parted-FUN!
This may cause confusion if you try creating logical partitions, I know it did for me.
(parted) mkpart extended 21476MB 4000787MB
(parted) mkpart logical 21476MB 1000787MB
Warning: You requested a partition from 21476MB to 1000787MB.
The closest location we can manage is 4000786MB to 4000786MB.
Is this still acceptable to you?
Yes/No? Yes
(parted) print
Model: ATA ST4000DM000-1F21 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdf: 4000787MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1.05MB 17181MB 17180MB ext4 raid-var
2 17181MB 21476MB 4295MB raid-swap
3 21476MB 4000786MB 3979310MB extended
4 4000786MB 4000786MB 0.00MB logical
You can’t create a partition called “logical” inside a partition called “extended”.
I want to format a disk using parted and make the LVM can you please help
I’ve successfully mkpart, but why when mkfs got this error ?
# mkfs /dev/sdb1
mke2fs 1.39 (29-May-2006)
/dev/sdb1 is apparently in use by the system; will not make a filesystem here!
What is the pre-requisite before using parted / GPT command ?