HP xw Workstation - SCSI Hard Drive Installation

6. Repeat this process until you have created your desired partitioning scheme.

NOTE: By entering w, you are permanently destroying any data that currently exists on the device. If you

need to preserve any data, enter q to exit the program without altering the disk.

Formatting an ext3 File Systems with mkfs

After you have created partitions on the disk drive using a partitioning program such as fdisk, use mkfs to

create an ext3 file system on each partition.

1. Open a shell prompt and log in as the root user.

2. Enter: /sbin/mkfs -t ext3 /dev/hdbX

In the above command, replace hdb with the drive letter and X with the partition number.

NOTE: Using mkfs to format a disk partition permanently destroys any data that currently exists on the

partition.

Assigning a Label with e2label

After you have created and formatted a partition, assign it a label using the e2label command. This enables

you to add the partition to /etc/fstab using a label instead of using a device path, thereby making the

system more robust.

To add a label to a partition:

1. Open a shell prompt and log in as the root user.

2. Enter: /sbin/e2label /dev/hdbX /mount/point

Where hdb is the drive letter, X is the partition number, and /mount/point is the mount point you

intend to use for the partition.

After you have assigned each partition a label, add the partitions to /etc/fstab.

1. Open a shell prompt and log in as the root user.

2. Enter: pico -w /etc/fstab

3. Add a line to /etc/fstab for each labeled partition.

In the entry /etc/fstab, replace each occurrence of /mount/point with the mount point you

intend to use for the partition.

If you need more information on the various options available to you in /etc/fstab, enter man

fstab.

If there are partitions whose label you are unsure of, enter the following command:

/sbin/tune2fs -l /dev/hdbX |grep volume

In the above command, replace hdb with the drive letter and X with the partition number.

This returns something similar to the following output:

Filesystem volume name: /mount/point

After completing the previous steps, you have successfully added a new ext3 disk to the system.

NOTE: Adding a partition to /etc/fstab allows the partition to be mounted at boot time and simplifies

use of the mount command.