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Old 13th June 2009
ocicat ocicat is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gosha View Post
It is 1T and has a big fat32 partition. I would like to make smaller partitions, maybe four (if I understand right this is the maximum for fdisk).
fdisk(8) allows a maximum of four primary (MBR) partitions. You also have the choice of taking one primary partition & designating it as an extended partition. You can further subdivide this single extended partition into any number of logical partitions. You should familiarize yourself with these concepts through any number of sources; Wikipedia being one which covers the basics:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_partition

You should also study Sections 4 & 14 of the FAQ:

http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html

http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq14.html
Quote:
I've used fdisk before to install OpenBSD and I know that the partition must start at sector 63.
Is it the same for a non bootable drive?
No. If the drive is not being used as a boot drive, then adhering to MBR restrictions is not required. fdisk(8) is not required for non-boot disks.
Quote:
Is it fine to start from head 0 sector 1?
Yes, for non-boot drives.
Quote:
Once I manage to partition in fdisk, does disklabel give the opportunity to make extra partitions (or how are they called?)?
It is unfortunate that the name "partition" is used in so many contexts, but that is the way things are in the Intel world. Other architectures (such as PPC...) do not have master boot records (MBR's).

Nevertheless, disklabel(8) can further subdivide FFS filesystems.
Quote:
Is this it? Can I run newfs? Will I need disklabel after this or is it usable like this? 240G partition isn't too big in case of fsck?
Study Section 14.7 of the FAQ.

The order of preparing additional storage for use with OpenBSD is:
  1. fdisk(8) is necessary for Intel boot drives, but optional for non-boot drives.
  2. disklabel(8) for FFS filesystems. disklabel will fake labels for non-FFS filesystems.
  3. newfs(8) to initialize each filesystem for mounting.
Quote:
Does it mean it is not that safe to use ext2 for backup in my external drive?
See Section 14.16.

I would highly suggest that you change the order where you search for information.
  1. Manpages are the most authoritative & vetted.
  2. The official FAQ is the single best source of general (palpable) information -- especially for newbies.
  3. Information on the official mailing lists is to be considered more timely -- especially if spoken by project developers.
  4. Forums such as this.
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