Disk partitioning and file system management

Disk partitioning and file system management are essential tasks when setting up a CentOS system.  

1. Partitioning Disks:

• Identify the disk you want to partition using the lsblk command. For example:

  sudo lsblk 

• Use a partitioning tool such as fdisk, parted, or gparted to create partitions on the disk. For example, using fdisk:

  sudo fdisk /dev/sdX 

  Replace /dev/sdX with the appropriate disk identifier.
• Follow the prompts to create partitions. You can create primary, extended, or logical partitions as needed.
• Use the p command to list existing partitions, n to create a new partition, t to change a partition's type, d to delete a partition, and w to write changes to disk and exit.

2. Formatting Partitions:

• After creating partitions, you need to format them with a file system. Common file systems in CentOS include ext4, XFS, and Btrfs.
• Use the appropriate command to format the partition. For example, to format a partition as ext4:

  sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdXY 

  Replace /dev/sdXY with the appropriate partition identifier.
• Repeat the process for each partition you've created.

3. Mounting Partitions:

• After formatting, you need to mount the partitions to make them accessible in the file system.
• Create mount points (directories) for each partition. For example:

  sudo mkdir /mnt/data 

• Edit the /etc/fstab file to automatically mount partitions at boot time. Add an entry for each partition in the following format:

  /dev/sdXY /mnt/data ext4 defaults 0 0 

  Replace /dev/sdXY with the partition identifier and /mnt/data with the mount point.
• Mount the partitions manually using the mount command:

  sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt/data 

4. Managing File Systems:

• Check disk usage and file system information using commands like df, du, and lsblk.
• Resize partitions and file systems using tools like parted, resize2fs, or xfs_growfs.
• Repair file systems using tools like fsck for ext4 or xfs_repair for XFS.