Fdisk Command Tips

Fdisk is a partition table manipulator for Linux. Fdisk displays information about disk partitions, creates and deletes disk partitions, and changes the active partition. It is possible to assign a different operating system to each of the four possible primary partitions, though only one partition is active at any given time. You can also divide a physical partition into several logical partitions.

Usage
The basic fdisk commands you need are:
# a Toggle a bootable flag on current partition.

# b Edit disklabel of a BSD partition.

#c Toggle DOS compatibility flag.

#d Delete current partition.

# l List all partition types.

# m Main menu.

# n Create a new partition; prompt for more information.

# o Create an empty DOS partition table.

# p Print a list of all partitions and information about each.

# q Quit; do not save.

# t Replace the type of the current partition.

# u Modify the display/entry units, which must be cylinders or sectors.

# v Verify: check for errors, and display a summary of the number of unallocated sectors.

# w Save changes and exit.

# x Switch to expert commands.

Example
To list all partitions currently on the system:
$ fdisk -l

I start fdisk from the shell prompt:
$ fdisk /dev/sdb

Command (m for help): p
(p to print all partition)

Command (m for help): d
(d to delete partitions)
Partition number (1-4): 1

Command (m for help): n
(n to add partition)
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
e
Partition number (1-4): 1

Command (m for help): w
(w to write the table on the disk)

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