Create a New Ubuntu Disk Partition Using Parted

If you have added a new disk to an Ubuntu server, you can use parted to create a partition and then format it ready for use.

This guide shows how to create a single GPT partition using the entire disk.

Warning: Double-check the disk device before partitioning. The commands below will modify the selected disk and can destroy existing data.

Identify the New Disk

First, list the disks attached to the server:

sudo lshw -C disk | grep 'logical name\|size'

For example:

logical name: /dev/sda
    size: 60GiB
logical name: /dev/sdb
    size: 100GiB

In this example, /dev/sdb is the new 100GB disk.

Create the Partition

Start parted against the new disk:

sudo parted /dev/sdb

Create a GPT partition table:

(parted) mklabel gpt

Set the unit to GB:

(parted) unit GB

Create a single partition using the available space:

(parted) mkpart
Partition name?  []? primary
File system type?  [ext2]? ext4
Start? 0
End? 100

You can then verify the partition:

(parted) print

When everything looks correct, exit:

(parted) quit

The new partition should now be available as:

/dev/sdb1

Format the Partition

For a typical Ubuntu data disk, I would recommend ext4:

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1

If you specifically need FAT32 instead:

sudo mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sdb1

The partition is now created and formatted. The next step is to create a mount point and mount it, or add it to /etc/fstab if it needs to be mounted automatically after a reboot.