279. Formatting and adding a disk with fdisk

I've got a box with two harddrives -- sda (160 gb) has debian and sdb has CentOS (500 gb). I never use CentOS and I need the space for debian.

sudo fdisk -l

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1   312581807   156290903+  ee  GPT

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0007e385

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *          63    32772599    16386268+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb2        32772600    40965749     4096575   83  Linux
/dev/sdb3        40965750    43006004     1020127+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb4        43006005   976768064   466881030    5  Extended
/dev/sdb5        43006068   976768064   466880998+  83  Linux

We're in 'luck' since we're only interested in killing sdb, and gparted wants a Display (this is done remotely).
So

sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-5): 1

Command (m for help): d 
Partition number (1-5): 2

Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-5): 3

Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-5): 4

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

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

So did it work?

 sudo fdisk -l

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1   312581807   156290903+  ee  GPT

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0007e385

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

Time to create a new partition

sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

Command (m for help): n
Partition type:
   p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
   e   extended
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 
Using default value 1
First sector (2048-976773167, default 2048): 
Using default value 2048
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-976773167, default 976773167): 
Using default value 976773167

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

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

Did it work?

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
81 heads, 63 sectors/track, 191411 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0007e385

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1            2048   976773167   488385560   83  Linux

Create a file system:

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1

mke2fs 1.42.5 (29-Jul-2012)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
30531584 inodes, 122096390 blocks
6104819 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=4294967296
3727 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8192 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208, 
        4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968, 
        102400000

Allocating group tables: done                            
Writing inode tables: done                            
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done     

Let's automount it:

mkdir /home/me/scratch

and edit /etc/fstab

/dev/sdb1  /home/me/scratch    ext4    defaults        0       2

You're done.