Linux Commands To Partition and Format a Drive

Partitioning

In addition to the wonderful gparted, we can also use fdisk to partition a disk:

fdisk /dev/sdb

The device names for hard disks and USB drives are typically /dev/sd?, for example, /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, etc. For Linux kernels 2.6.18 or older, IDE hard drives may be called /dev/hda, /dev/hdb, etc.

Formatting

To format a FAT16 partition:

mkdosfs -F 16 -n LABEL -r 512 -v /dev/sdb1

To format EXT2 partition:

mke2fs -L SID -v /dev/sdb2

To format a JFS partition:

jfs_mkfs -c -L Debian_Sid /dev/sdb2

Installing MBR

MBR is a boot code necessary for booting from the hard drive or USB flash.

install-mbr /dev/sdb -v --drive 0x80 --enable +12

Installing bootloaders

For SYSLINUX:

syslinux /dev/sdb1

Checking Filesystem Integrity

For FAT16/FAT32:

dosfsck -r -v -V /dev/sdb1