PBQ1 — Linux Disk Partitioning

Scenario: A new drive was recently added to a Linux system. Using the environment and tokens provided, complete the following tasks:

Create an appropriate device label.
Format and create an ext4 file system on the new partition.

The current working directory is /.

Instructions: Use the drop-down menus to select the correct object to complete each command. Not all objects will be used, and some may be used more than once. Click Check Answers for detailed feedback — including exactly why each wrong choice is incorrect.

Available objects

sdb

ext4

mkpart

/dev/dev1

secondary

mklabel

gpt

parted

mkdir

/dev/sdc1

/data

/dev/sdc

ext2

ext3

sdc

lsblk

primary

root@linux:~#

Command 1 — create partition table

parted -s

gpt

Command 2 — create partition

parted -s

1 10G

Command 3 — format filesystem

mkfs.

8 / 9 correct

All correct! Excellent work.

✓ Correctparted -s /dev/sdc mklabel gpt▼

✓ Correctparted -s /dev/sdc mkpart primary ext4 1 10G▼

✓ Correctmkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc1▼

parted -s /dev/sdc mklabel gpt

parted is the primary Linux disk partitioning utility. The -s flag enables script (non-interactive) mode, which suppresses all confirmation prompts so the command runs unattended — essential in scripts and automation.

/dev/sdc is the target disk (third SATA/SCSI device). The full /dev/ path is mandatory — bare names like sdc are rejected.

mklabel writes a completely new partition table to the disk, destroying any previous layout. The argument gpt (already provided) sets the GUID Partition Table format — the modern standard that supports disks larger than 2 TB, stores up to 128 primary partitions, and keeps a backup copy of the table at the end of the disk for recovery.

parted -s /dev/sdc mkpart primary ext4 1 10G

mkpart adds a new partition entry to the table created in Command 1. It requires four arguments: partition type, filesystem type hint, start, and end.

primary — the partition type. In GPT all partitions are technically primary; parted still accepts the keyword for compatibility. secondary is not a valid parted type at all.

ext4 here is a metadata hint only — it stores the intended filesystem type in the partition entry but performs no formatting. The actual filesystem is created in Command 3.

1 10G (pre-filled) defines start and end: starting at 1 MB clears the GPT header area and aligns to modern 4K-sector drives for optimal I/O performance; ending at 10G produces a ~10 GB partition.

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc1

mkfs. is the make-filesystem command family. The filesystem type is appended directly with no space, forming the binary mkfs.ext4. This step actually creates the filesystem — writing the superblock, inode tables, block group descriptors, extent tree, and journal onto the partition.

/dev/sdc1 is the first partition on sdc — exactly the partition just created in Command 2. Using /dev/sdc (the whole disk) would overwrite the partition table written in Command 1, destroying all partition data immediately.