Author: Vic Date: To: Hampshire LUG Discussion List Subject: Re: [Hampshire] Adding hd to system
>> Yes, but you still want to run mke2fs on the *partition*, not the >> *disk*.
>
> Out of interest, what happens if you proceed? I believe you are prompted
> for a yes or no which mentions formatting the whole disk - does it fail
> if no partitions are defined, or does it work some magic that somehow
> gives you a usable disk?
You can make a filesystem on the plain disk device without partitions.
It's perfectly useable - but you'll get bogus errors from anything that
tries to interrogate the disk (because most things expect a partition
table, and this disk won't have one).
The amount of actual space you waste on a disk by partitioning it is
negligeable. The amount of hussle you'll create for yourself by not
partitioning is more than that tiny amount of space is worth...