Formatting second hard disk

[Paul Smith]

Dear All,

I have got a second hard disk on my desktop computer, which I would
like to format. My machine runs Fedora 33, and I would like to ask you
what format to adopt: the new Btrfs is advisable?

Moreover, could you please direct me to some documentation on how to
format the hard disk? Using GParted?

Thanks in advance,

Paul

[Doug H.]

On Sun, Feb 28, 2021, at 4:39 AM, Paul Smith wrote:
>  Dear All,
>  
>  I have got a second hard disk on my desktop computer, which I would
>  like to format. My machine runs Fedora 33, and I would like to ask you
>  what format to adopt: the new Btrfs is advisable?
>  
>  Moreover, could you please direct me to some documentation on how to
>  format the hard disk? Using GParted? 
Since nobody has replied I will take a shot and people can correct if needed...

Btrfs seems like a good choice since it improves data integrity and is now the default for
fresh Fedora installs.

Best to format with a partition instead of just using the file system on the
"raw" /dev/sdX, so yes for that one I guess.

You can use more than one partition if you want to segregate things for any reason, like
backups etc. You might also like multiple partitions if it is a very large disk.

GParted is a fine choice, but whatever works for you. I use Xfce so the Accessories /
Disks GUI works fine but I do also have GParted installed. I am sort of old school so tend
to just use the `fdisk` command line util, but that is rather old so maybe gdisk would be
the better option now.


-- 
 Doug Herr
fedoraproject.org(a)wombatz.com

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Sun, 2021-02-28 at 14:26 -0800, Doug H. wrote:
>  On Sun, Feb 28, 2021, at 4:39 AM, Paul Smith wrote:
>  > Dear All,
>  > 
>  > I have got a second hard disk on my desktop computer, which I would
>  > like to format. My machine runs Fedora 33, and I would like to ask you
>  > what format to adopt: the new Btrfs is advisable?
>  > 
>  > Moreover, could you please direct me to some documentation on how to
>  > format the hard disk? Using GParted?
>  
>  Since nobody has replied I will take a shot and people can correct if needed...
>  
>  Btrfs seems like a good choice since it improves data integrity and is now the default
> for fresh Fedora installs.
>  
>  Best to format with a partition instead of just using the file system on the
> "raw" /dev/sdX, so yes for that one I guess.
>  
>  You can use more than one partition if you want to segregate things for any reason, like
> backups etc. You might also like multiple partitions if it is a very large disk. 
You can get most of the benefits of partitions and some nice extras by
using BTRFS subvolumes. Among other things you can get snapshots, COW,
and don't have to commit to a rigid division of space.

poc

[Roberto Ragusa]

On 2/28/21 11:26 PM, Doug H. wrote:

>  I am sort of old school so tend to just use the `fdisk` command line
> util, but that is rather old so maybe gdisk would be the better option now. 
fdisk now supports GPT too, there is no need to use gdisk

Regards.
-- 
    Roberto Ragusa    mail at robertoragusa.it

[Paul Smith]

On Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 6:44 PM Roberto Ragusa <mail(a)robertoragusa.it&gt; wrote:
>  > I am sort of old school so tend to just use the `fdisk` command line util, but that
> is rather old so maybe gdisk would be the better option now.
>
>  fdisk now supports GPT too, there is no need to use gdisk 
Thanks to all for your help! I have meanwhile managed to format my
second hard drive with btrfs -- and it is working perfectly.

Paul

[Chris Murphy]

On Sun, Feb 28, 2021 at 5:40 AM Paul Smith <phhs80(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  Dear All,
>
>  I have got a second hard disk on my desktop computer, which I would
>  like to format. My machine runs Fedora 33, and I would like to ask you
>  what format to adopt: the new Btrfs is advisable?
>
>  Moreover, could you please direct me to some documentation on how to
>  format the hard disk? Using GParted? 
If you're already familiar with gparted, use that. Workstation edition
also comes with GNOME Disks, and KDE comes with Partition Manager,
which can also do this task.


--
Chris Murphy