System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems

x86: fdisk Menu

The fdisk menu appears on x86 based systems only and appears similar to the following.


format> fdisk
             Total disk size is 14169 cylinders
             Cylinder size is 2510 (512 byte) blocks

                                               Cylinders
      Partition   Status    Type          Start   End   Length    %
      =========   ======    ============  =====   ===   ======   ===
          1       Active    x86 Boot          1     9       9      0
          2                 Solaris2         10  14168    14159    100

SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

  1. Create a partition
  2. Specify the active partition
  3. Delete a partition
  4. Change between Solaris and Solaris2 Partition IDs
  5. Exit (update disk configuration and exit)
  6. Cancel (exit without updating disk configuration)
  Enter Selection:

The following table describes the fdisk menu items.

Table 15–3 x86: Descriptions for fdisk Menu Items

Menu Item 

Description 

Create a partition

Creates an fdisk partition. You must create a separate partition for each OS such as Solaris or DOS. There is a maximum of four partitions per disk. You are prompted for the size of the fdisk partition as a percentage of the disk.

Specify the active partition

Enables you to specify the partition to be used for booting. This menu item identifies where the first stage boot program looks for the second stage boot program. 

Delete a partition

Deletes a previously created partition. This command destroys all the data in the partition. 

Change between Solaris and Solaris2 Partition IDs

Changes partition IDs from 130 (0x82) to 191 (0xbf) and back again.

Exit (update disk configuration and exit)

Writes a new version of the partition table and exits the fdisk menu.

Cancel (exit without updating disk configuration)

Exits the fdisk menu without modifying the partition table.