Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Hosting Security and Technology : Formatting HDD and starting Fresh

[vpsfusion]

Hello,

I have a server with Redhat 9 Installed in it. I want to format that hard drive and install a fresh CentOS installation on it. I also want to mount another hard drive I have which has a curropted RedHat 9 installation on it. I am not very familiar with formatting and etc with Linux, if it was Windows, i would have done it. Can you please tell me what steps I have to follow in order to format and mount Both HDD and get CentOS and cPanel running.

Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Hussain Baig

[assistanz247]

If you like to start a fresh centOS installation you can very well partiton or format your HDD during the initial installation..using Disk Druid or fdisk. Check the following url for more information..

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...al/doc031.html

[vpsfusion]

Thanks,

I will try formatting the drives when I do the installation.

[macooper]

Hi,
when you do the install, do a minimal server installation. Then follow the cpanel install guide here to install cpanel.

The cpanel install will install everything that is needed to make it run.

For the old hard disk, put it in the server as slave, then use the command :-

fdisk -l /dev/hdb

Assuming you have slaved the drive on the primary IDE interface. This will display the partition table, and will typically look something like this :-

Disk /dev/hdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 499 4008186 83 Linux
/dev/hdb2 500 865 2939895 82 Linux swap
/dev/hdb3 866 30401 237247920 5 Extended
/dev/hdb5 866 1352 3911796 83 Linux
/dev/hdb6 1353 3785 19543041 83 Linux
/dev/hdb7 3786 4272 3911796 83 Linux
/dev/hdb8 4273 6705 19543041 83 Linux
/dev/hdb9 6706 30401 190338088+ 83 Linux


To mount a partition, use :-

mount /dev/hdb2 /mnt

replacing the /dev/hdb2 with the partition you wish to mount. Note that you cannot mount the swap partition or the extended partition.


To check the filesystem, make sure it is unmounted and use the command :-

fsck /dev/hdb7

To format a partition, assuming you want to use the ext3 filesystem, use the command :-

mkfs -j /dev/hdb5

HTH