Using parted in linux

How to Create and Manage Linux Partitions using Parted

When it comes to the usage and mastery of Linux operating systems, you will always find yourselves learning new cool stuff due to its open-source and extensible nature.

One cool feature available in all Linux operating system distributions is disk partitioning, which is important as it helps with organizing your files and folders, preventing files and folders conflicts, and also in seclusion of the system files from the user files.

While considering disk partitioning in other operating systems (not Linux-based), you are bound to go after a third-party application for you to fully meet your disk partitioning objectives. With Linux, using a third-party application for disk partitioning is an optional step.

Prerequisite

Since disk partitions are critical to the usage and operation of your machine, the power and usage of the Parted tool should be associated with root/sudoer user privileges.

Using Parted as a Disk Partitioner for Linux

This article introduces the use of Parted as an effective disk partitioning tool. This disk partition tool should be inbuilt into your Linux operating system distribution and you can validate its presence by executing the following command:

Identify Linux Disk Labels

The command helps list the disk labels present on your Linux system making it easier to identify the one that will be used to create the needed Linux partitions.

From the above command output, we have identified /dev/sda as the targeted disklabel with a logical/physical sector size. Please note that it is impossible to partition a disk label hosting the operating system you are currently using as such a disklabel will have a primary sector size.

Choose Linux Hard Disk for Partitioning

To select /dev/sda for partitioning (in case we have many disk labels present), we will execute the following parted command.

The above command should point to the disk label we have selected for partitioning.

Key in ‘help‘ to view all the commands associated with the parted command, which is a quick and useful reference manual when you find yourself stuck while creating and managing Linux partitions.

Set Linux Partition Table Type

To create a new partition table type, we need the help of the mklabel command, which lists the possible label types we can use:

We will use msdos as it is an ideal recommendation for generic Linux.

Create Primary and/or Logical Partition(s) in Linux

We will use the print command to check how much space we have on the Disk we intent to partition.

As per the above command output, we have 32.4 GB of free Disk space to use.

We can create partitions from the availed disk space using the mkpart command. The primary partition can be used for the installation of your Linux operating system and the logical partition for the storage of your personal/non-system files.

Let us create a 10GB primary partition and a 5GB logical partition.

To create 10GB Primary Partition:

The Start and End values of this partition are 0 and 10GB respectively. To confirm that the partition space has been used.

To create 5GB Primary Partition:

The Start and End values for this 5GB logical partition should begin from 10.1GB (a value higher than the one for the created primary partition) and 15.1GB (Adding 5 to 10.1).

Confirm that the partition space has been used:

The two created partitions should now be listed with their respectful sizes as per the above screen capture.

Managing Linux Partitions

To delete a partition, first, use the print command so that its Number can be listed and then use the rm command to delete it.

To remove partition Number 2 from the above screen capture:

To resize Linux partition 1 by shrinking or increasing its partition size:

To make partition Number 1 bootable:

To learn more on parted commands, reference the command:

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8 Parted Commands to Manage Disk Partitions in Linux

Parted is a renowned command-line utility designed to facilitate the management of hard disk partitions in a user-friendly manner.

With Parted, you can effortlessly perform tasks such as adding, deleting, shrinking, and extending disk partitions, while also managing the file systems associated with them.

Over time, Parted has undergone significant development and evolution, introducing various enhancements and changes to its functionality. Certain features have been retired, while new capabilities have been introduced, rendering it a versatile tool for partition management.

This tutorial aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to Parted, covering its fundamental concepts and demonstrating practical examples. If you are new to Parted, it is essential to note that any modifications made using Parted are immediately written to the disk.

Therefore, it is crucial to exercise caution while attempting to modify your disk partitions to avoid unintended consequences or data loss. Throughout this tutorial, we will guide you step-by-step, ensuring that you grasp the basics of Parted and understand the potential implications of your actions when working with disk partitions.

If you intend to experiment with Parted, it is recommended to utilize a virtual machine or an old computer/laptop that does not contain any critical data. When making modifications to a disk partition, it is crucial that the partition is not actively in use.

In the case of primary partitions, you may consider booting into rescue mode, which provides a safe environment for performing partition-related tasks without interference from the running operating system. This precautionary approach ensures the integrity of your valuable data and minimizes the risk of unintended consequences during partition manipulation.

Note: You will need to have root access to the machine you will be working on in order to use parted.

How to Install Parted on Linux

On many Linux distributions, parted comes pre-installed. If it is not included in your distro, you can install it with:

$ sudo apt install parted [On Debian, Ubuntu and Mint] $ sudo yum install parted [On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora and Rocky/AlmaLinux] $ sudo emerge -a sys-apps/parted [On Gentoo Linux] $ sudo apk add parted [On Alpine Linux] $ sudo pacman -S parted [On Arch Linux] $ sudo zypper install parted [On OpenSUSE]

Once you have made sure that parted is installed, you can proceed further to check out some real-world examples of parted command in the rest of this article.

1. Check Parted Version

To observe a similar message as depicted in the image below, execute the following command. Please note that the output may differ slightly depending on your specific version of Parted. By default, Parted will operate on your primary drive, typically identified as /dev/sda , unless otherwise specified.

If you want to exit parted, simply type:

2. List Disk Partitions in Linux

Now that parted is started, let’s list the partitions of the selected hard disk. As mentioned earlier, parted chooses your first drive by default. To see the disk partitions run print .

When running print , it will also display the hard disk information and model. Here is an example from a real hard disk (not virtual as shown in the image above) :

(parted) print Model: ATA TOSHIBA MQ01ACF0 (scsi) Disk /dev/sda: 320GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B Partition Table: msdos Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 1049kB 256MB 255MB primary ext2 boot 2 257MB 320GB 320GB extended 5 257MB 320GB 320GB logical lvm

In the example above, you can see the disk model, capacity sector size, and partition table.

3. Change or Switch Partition in Linux

If you have more than one hard disk, you can easily switch between disks, by using the “ select ” command. In the example below, I will switch from /dev/sda to /dev/sdb which is a secondary drive on my system.

To easily switch between disks you can use:

Change «X» with the letter of the disk to which you wish to switch.

4. Create Partition in Linux

The parted can be used to create primary and logical disk partitions. In this example, I will show you how to create a primary partition, but the steps are the same for logical partitions.

To create a new partition, parted uses “ mkpart “. You can give it additional parameters like «primary» or «logical» depending on the partition type that you wish to create.

Before you start creating partitions, it’s important to make sure that you are using (you have selected) the right disk.

As shown in the above image, we are using a virtual drive of 34 GB. First, we will give the new disk a label and then create a partition and set a file system on it.

Now the first step is to give the new disk a label name with:

Now create the new partition with mkpart . The listed units are in megabytes (MB). We will create a 10 GB partition starting from 1 to 10000:

(parted) mkpart Partition type? primary/extended? primary File system type? [ext2]? Start? 1 End? 10000 (parted) print Model: ATA VBOX HARDDISK (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 34.4GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Disk Flags: Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 1049kB 10.0GB 9999MB primary ext2 lba

Next, exit parted with «quit» command. We will format our new partition in the ext4 file system using mkfs . To make this happen run the following command:

Note: It’s important to select the right disk and partition when executing the above command!

Now let’s verify our results, by printing the partition table on our secondary disk. Under file system column, you should see ext4 or the file system type that you have decided to use for your partition:

5. Resize Linux Disk Partition

Parted includes multiple useful functions and one of them is «resizepart» . As you have probably figured this out by now, «resizepart» helps you resize a partition.

In the example below, you will see how to resize an existing partition. For the purpose of this example, we will be using the earlier created partition.

First, you will need to know the number of the partition that you will be resizing. This can be easily found by using «print» :

In our example, the partition number is «1» . Now run the resizepart command:

You will be asked for the number of the partition that you will resize. Enter its number. After that, you will be asked to set the new ending point for this partition. Remember that by default the units are in MB. In our example, we have set the new partition size to 15 GB:

(parted) resizepart Partition number? 1 End? [10.0GB]? 15000

Now verify the results with «print» :

6. Delete Linux Partition

The next thing you will learn is how to delete a partition from your hard drive. To do this, you will need to use the rm command within parted. To delete a disk partition you will need to know its number.

As mentioned earlier, you can easily obtain this number by using «print» . In our example, we will delete the partition with a number 1 from our secondary drive /dev/sdb1 :

Verify the results by printing the partitions table:

7. Rescue Linux Disk Partition

Parted supports a “ rescue» utility that helps you recover a lost partition between a starting and ending point. If a partition is found within that range, it will attempt to restore it.

(parted) rescue Start? 1 End? 15000 (parted) print Model: Unknown (unknown) Disk /dev/sdb1: 15.0GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: loop Disk Flags: Number Start End Size File system Flags 1 0.00B 15.0GB 15.0GB ext4

8 Change Linux Partition Flag

Using parted, you can change the state of a flag for disk partitions. The supported flags are:

The states can be either «on» or «off» . To change a flag simply run «set» command within parted:

The above command sets lba flag to on for the second partition. Verify the results with print :

Conclusion

Parted is a useful and powerful utility that can help you manage your disk partitions in Linux systems. As always, when working with disk partitions you need to be extra careful.

It is strongly recommended to go through parted man pages to learn how you can customize its output and find more information about its capabilities.

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to use the comment section below.

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