[clue] Dumb disk question

[Dan Kulinski]

If you do want to see if there is a file system directly on the block
device, try file -s /dev/sdb.  This will look for the magic number in
common locations.  I just learned this because I knew how the file command
worked on files and wondered if it knew about file systems.  Sure enough,
it does!

On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 4:35 PM, Dan Kulinski <daniel at kulinski.net> wrote:

> Do you know what type of file system it is supposed to be?  If there is no
> partition table then the file system should be taking up the whole device.
> The way you limit the size of a file system, generally, is to create a
> partition.
>
> On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 4:30 PM, foo7775 <foo7775 at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>> Hey all, first off, I am _very_ aware that this is a painfully-basic
>> question, but this has been a rough week, so please bear with me...
>>
>>   I've been searching for this info for a while now, but my very-tired
>> brain doesn't appear to be able to format the search terms appropriately.
>> What I'm wanting to do is to confirm that a defined disk (/dev/sdb in this
>> case) is essentially "a raw partition" & doesn't have any data on it.  If I
>> can confirm that, then I can create the needed partitions/filesystems &
>> turn it over to the customer.  The 'fdisk' utility shows me this:
>>
>> Disk /dev/sdb: 214.7 GB, 214748364800 bytes
>> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 26108 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
>>
>>    Now I can tell that it doesn't contain any partitions on it (i.e.
>> sdb1, sdb2, etc.), but I just can't seem to remember how to confirm that it
>> isn't formatted as a single big partition.  I'd be grateful if someone
>> could refresh my memory on this...
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> T.
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> [image: Avast logo] <https://www.avast.com/antivirus>
>>
>> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
>> www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/antivirus>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> clue mailing list: clue at cluedenver.org
>> For information, account preferences, or to unsubscribe see:
>> http://cluedenver.org/mailman/listinfo/clue
>>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://cluedenver.org/pipermail/clue/attachments/20151023/a92cc605/attachment-0001.html