257 lines
4.3 KiB
HTML
257 lines
4.3 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
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<HTML
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><HEAD
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><TITLE
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>Formatting an ext2/3 partition</TITLE
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><META
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NAME="GENERATOR"
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CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK
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HREF="labels.html"><LINK
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TITLE="Recovering a Deleted Partition Table"
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>Linux Partition HOWTO</TH
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><H1
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CLASS="sect1"
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><A
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NAME="formatting"
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></A
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>7. Formatting an ext2/3 partition</H1
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><P
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> When a hard drive is partitioned, it is mapped into sections, but
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the sections are empty. It is like a newly constructed library;
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shelves, signs, and a card catalogue system must be put in place
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before the books are put away.</P
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><P
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> The organizational structure inside a partition is called a file
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system. With Linux, the standard file system is ext2 and ext3. The
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ext3 file system is ext2, plus a log of disk writes called a
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journal. The journal allows the system to recover quickly from
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accidental power outages, among other things.
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</P
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><P
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> The principal tool for making an ext2/3 file system in a partition
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is <B
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CLASS="command"
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>mke2fs</B
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>. It is usually found in <TT
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CLASS="filename"
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>/sbin</TT
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>. <B
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CLASS="command"
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>mkfs.ext2</B
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> and
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<B
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CLASS="command"
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>mkfs.ext3</B
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> are frontends which pass specific
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options to <B
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CLASS="command"
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>mke2fs</B
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>.
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</P
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect3"
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><H3
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CLASS="sect3"
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><A
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NAME="formatting-invocation"
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></A
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>.1. Simple Invocation</H3
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><P
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> <B
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CLASS="command"
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>mke2fs</B
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> <TT
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CLASS="filename"
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>/dev/hdb1</TT
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>
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</P
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><P
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> <B
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CLASS="command"
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>mkfs.ext2</B
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> <TT
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CLASS="filename"
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>/dev/hdb1</TT
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>
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</P
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><P
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> both of which make an ext2 file system on the first partition of the second drive, and
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</P
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><P
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> <B
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CLASS="command"
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>mke2fs</B
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> -j <TT
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CLASS="filename"
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>/dev/hdb1</TT
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>
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</P
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><P
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> <B
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CLASS="command"
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>mkfs.ext3</B
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> <TT
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CLASS="filename"
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>/dev/hdb1</TT
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>
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</P
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><P
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> make an ext3 file system.
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</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect3"
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><H3
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CLASS="sect3"
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><A
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NAME="reservedblocks"
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></A
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>.2. Reserved blocks</H3
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><P
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> The -m option is probably the one of most use to non-experts. If the
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file system becomes filled and there is no more space to write, it
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is basically unusable because the operating system is constantly
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writing to disk. By default, five percent of the partition is
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reserved for use by the root user. This allows root to conduct
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administrative activities on the partition and perhaps move some
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data off. However, this is most critical when the partition contains
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/ or home directories. For pure data partitions, this is just lost
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space. Five percent of a 250Gb partition is 12.5 Gb. Especially in
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the case of large partitions, it is safe to set the reserved space
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to the minimum, which is one percent.
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</P
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><P
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> <B
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CLASS="command"
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>mkfs.ext3</B
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> -m 1<TT
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CLASS="filename"
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>/dev/hdb1</TT
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>
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</P
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><P
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> creates a file system with only 1% of its space reserved for the
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root user. tune2fs -m can be used to adjust the reserved blocks
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after data is loaded on the partition.
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</P
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></DIV
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>Prev</A
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VALIGN="top"
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>Recovering a Deleted Partition Table</TD
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