Add secondary Hard Disk in Linux/RHEL/CentOS

Add secondary Hard Disk in Linux/RHEL/CentOS

Step I

Make use you are under root mode.

1. # su -  

Step II

Check your hard disk list

1. [root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l  
2. Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes  
3. 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders  
4. Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes  
5. Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System  
6. /dev/sda1               1           7       56196   de  Dell Utility  
7. /dev/sda2   *           8        7187    57671680    7  HPFS/NTFS  
8. /dev/sda3            7187       32684   204800000    7  HPFS/NTFS  
9. /dev/sda4           32685       60801   225849802+   5  Extended  
10. /dev/sda5           32685       39058    51199123+  83  Linux  
11. /dev/sda6           39059       39319     2096451   82  Linux swap / Solaris  
12. /dev/sda7           39320       60801   172554133+  83  Linux  
13. Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes  
14. 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders  
15. Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes  
16. Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table  

Step 3

Initialize the hard disk.

[root@]# fdisk /dev/sdb
Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous
content won't be recoverable.


The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 30515.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Command (m for help): m
Command action
   a   toggle a bootable flag
   b   edit bsd disklabel
   c   toggle the dos compatibility flag
   d   delete a partition
   l   list known partition types
   m   print this menu
   n   add a new partition
   o   create a new empty DOS partition table
   p   print the partition table
   q   quit without saving changes
   s   create a new empty Sun disklabel
   t   change a partition's system id
   u   change display/entry units
   v   verify the partition table
   w   write table to disk and exit
   x   extra functionality (experts only)

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-30515, default 1): <enter>
Using default value 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-30515, default 30515): <enter>
Using default value 30515

Command (m for help):

You may set your disk as your wish, please press "m" to get help.

Now that we’ve created the partition scheme we’d like, we need to write the changes to the disk partition table.

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
[root@quetzalcoatl ~]#

Step 4

Format the new partition

[root@localhost ~]# mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdb1  

Step 5

Create mount point and set up automatic mount when system start up.

1. [root@localhost ~]# mkdir /newdisk  

Add the following line into fstab.

1. #vim /etc/fstab
   /dev/sdb1   /newdisk   ext3   default 0   1