Partitioning

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Partitioning

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What is a partition?

Partitions allow you to divide a single physical disk into multiple, isolated sections. Each partition can be managed independently

Partition types in Linux

MBR- Master Boot Record

The Master Boot Record (MBR) is a special type of boot sector at the very beginning of a disk. The MBR contains important information about the disk's partitions and the filesystem, as well as executable code necessary to boot an operating system. MBR permits for up to 4 partitions on a storage device and also has limitations in the size of disks it can partition, as well as the size of partitions that can be created.

TLDR; MBR can partition a drive into 4 partitions. Not ideal for large drives. Old standard that's being phased out in favour of GPT.

GPT - GUID Partition Table

The GUID Partition Table (GPT) is a modern standard for the layout of partition tables on a physical storage device. GPT is part of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) standard, which is designed to replace the older BIOS firmware interface used by PCs.

Benefits of GPT include: 

Larger Disk and Partition Support - GPT allows for a virtually unlimited number of partitions. GPT can support disks larger than 2 terabytes (TB), up to 9.4 zettabytes (ZB).

Redundancy - GPT stores a primary partition table at the beginning of the disk and a backup partition table at the end of the disk.

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fdisk (format disk) is a command-line utility that can be used for making changes to disk partitions.

List drive partitions:

fdisk -l /dev/diskname

create new partition:

fdisk -n

Example;

Delete a partition

fdisk -d

print current boot record:

-l

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