How to add a new hard disk to linux system.

Adding a hard disk to Linux is not as difficult as some people think. It is fairly simple and straightforward (though slightly harder than in Microsoft Windows). You need to understand partitioning, filesystem creation, and mounting. The commands used to add the new disk are:

1. fdisk manages hard drive partitions.
2. mkfs.ext3 creates an ext3 filesystem.
3. e2lable assigns a label to a partition.
4. mount makes a newly created partition available for use.

Now that we have covered the basic commands, let us look at the procedure.

1. After adding the hard disk, run fdisk -l to check that it is present. In the example below, the newly added disk is hdb, identified here by its lack of a partition table (one simple method among several).

   [root@ezylinux ~]# fdisk -l
   Disk /dev/hda: 64 heads, 63 sectors, 621 cylinders
   Units = cylinders of 4032 * 512 bytes
   
   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
   /dev/hda1   *         1       184    370912+  83  Linux
   /dev/hda2           185       368    370944   83  Linux
   /dev/hda3           369       552    370944   83  Linux
   /dev/hda4           553       621    139104   82  Linux swap
   
   Disk /dev/hdb: 64 heads, 63 sectors, 621 cylinders
   Units = cylinders of 4032 * 512 bytes
   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

2. Run:

   [root@ezylinux ~]# fdisk /dev/hdb

   In the disk management screen, press n to create a partition, then p, and enter 1. The program asks for the starting cylinder; normally, press Enter. It then asks for the ending cylinder. There is no need to count cylinders: the program also accepts familiar units such as MB. This example uses +128MB (always include the +). Press p to check that the partition has been created. The output looks like this:

      Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
   /dev/hdb1             1       196    395104   83  Linux

   Press w to save. Back at the terminal, run:

   [root@ezylinux ~]# fdisk -l /dev/hdb
   Disk /dev/hdb: 64 heads, 63 sectors, 621 cylinders
   Units = cylinders of 4032 * 512 bytes
   
   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
   /dev/hdb1   *         1       196    395104+  83  Linux

   The example now shows the newly created /dev/hdb1 partition. :)

3. Run:

   [root@ezylinux ~]# mkfs.ext3 /dev/hdb1

   to create an ext3 filesystem.

4. This step is optional and not particularly important. Create a label for the partition with this command.

   [root@ezylinux ~]# e2label /dev/hdb1 /test1

5. Create a directory with this command.

   [root@ezylinux ~]# mkdir /test1

6. Mount the hdb1 partition we created with this command.

   [root@ezylinux ~]# mount -t ext3 /dev/hdb1 /test1

   To mount it automatically after every restart, use:

   [root@ezylinux ~]# echo "LABEL=/test1 /test1 ext3 defaults 1 2" >>/etc/fstab

7. Try running:

   [root@ezylinux ~]# df -h

   to check that the partition is mounted.

It is not as difficult as you might have thought, is it? :)