Is partitioning required?

[Tony Pursell]

On Sun, 2011-06-12 at 08:34 -0400, Rashkae wrote:
> On 06/12/2011 03:45 AM, Robert Spanjaard wrote:
> > I just installed a new harddisk. Because I was planning to use it as a
> > single large volume, I forgot to partition it. I just clicked Format in
> > the Disk Utility, and it works.
> > But now, "sudo fdisk -l" shows the following information:
> >
> > ---
> > Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
> > 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
> > Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> > Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> > I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> > Disk identifier: 0x00000000
> >
> > Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table
> >
> > Disk /dev/sdc: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
> > 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
> > Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> > Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> > I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> > Disk identifier: 0x00021241
> >
> >     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> > /dev/sdc1   *           1      121601   976760001   83  Linux
> > ---
> >
> > Disk dev/sdb is the new harddisk.
> > Disk /dev/sdc is a different harddisk, where I did create a single large
> > partition before formatting.
> >
> > Both disks are working fine, but still, I wonder if I should have created
> > a partition table first.
> >
> Not strictly necessary, but a very good idea nontheless.  It can be 
> helpful, for example, if you have a boot sector that bootloaders can 
> install on.  Also, without a partition table, other low level disk 
> utilities or OS may, at some point, simply overwrite parts of the hard 
> drive without warning (as they would assume the hd is blank)
> 

Have a look at it with gparted, and use that to put a partition on it,
which will be /dev/sdb1.  Formatting the disk probably just put it into
512 byte blocks.  Before you can write to it, sensibly, you need a file
system on it, say ext4, but it could be FAT32, ntfs, ext3 or any other
file system recognised by the OS. 

Tony