How to view if partitions primary or secondary in Linux

Question

How do I view my partitions if they are primary or secondary in Linux CentOS? I tried df -T but it does not show if partitions are primary or secondary.

no such thing as secondary, you mean primary or logical within an extended. — barlop, Aug 23 '19 at 13:35

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 16 '18 at 20:42

Use this command: sudo parted /dev/sda followed by print. It outputs:

GNU Parted 3.2
Using /dev/sda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) print                                                            
Model: ATA WDC WD10JPVX-60J (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End    Size    Type      File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  525MB  524MB   primary   ntfs
 2      525MB   132GB  131GB   primary   ntfs         boot
 3      132GB   461GB  329GB   primary   ntfs
 4      461GB   966GB  505GB   extended               lba
 6      461GB   566GB  105GB   logical   ext4
 5      566GB   896GB  330GB   logical   ntfs
 7      896GB   966GB  70.0GB  logical   ext4

You can check if the partition is primary or extended from this. Hope this helps!

To me it doesn't show the column "Type". Maybe it's because I'm using a SSD? — Rodrigo, Jul 29 '20 at 04:41
@Rodrigo To me it doesn't show the column "Type". Even though I'm using a HDD! — Porcupine, Feb 01 '21 at 08:49

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 24 '12 at 08:05

4

Use the cfdisk command.

cfdisk /dev/sda

answered Nov 24 '12 at 08:05

melsayed

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1
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then what. I still can't see – barlop Aug 22 '19 at 12:21
Amazing tool, thanks! – Mr. Hedgehog Nov 03 '19 at 12:07

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 24 '12 at 12:59

1

Try fdisk -l and df -T and align the devices fdisk reports to the devices df reports. A standard MBR disk can contain only 4 primary partitions or 3 primary and 1 extended. If you have partitions numbered >= 5 they are logical partitions (with the extended partition hosting them being always number 4 i.e. /dev/sda4).

answered Nov 24 '12 at 12:59

priestjim

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3
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Your information is wrong, the extended partition is always numbered less than 5, but it doesn't have to be 4. You can also have primary partitions after extended partition. – Jimmy Mar 02 '14 at 15:31

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 26 '17 at 12:59

Use "fdisk -l", but look at the "Start"/"End" sectors instead of sdan numbers. If there is any overlap between Devices, there are extended/logical partitions.

Here is an abstraction for MBR scheme. Be aware the sda2 starts from 1001470 and ends at 1000214527, covering the following 4 partitions range. It's identified as Extended partition and sda5 ~ sda8 are logical partitions.

$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 477 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000e5c64

Device     Boot     Start        End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *         2048     999423    997376   487M 83 Linux
/dev/sda2         1001470 1000214527 999213058 476.5G  5 Extended
/dev/sda5         1001472   40060927  39059456  18.6G 83 Linux
/dev/sda6        40062976   79122431  39059456  18.6G 83 Linux
/dev/sda7        79124480  977559551 898435072 428.4G 83 Linux
/dev/sda8       977561600 1000214527  22652928  10.8G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
...

Here is an example of GPT partition scheme. There are all Primary partitions. No Extended partition.

$ sudo fdisk -l    
Disk /dev/sda: 477 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 079BF6C7-D69B-4188-B3AD-8BFE39D0F289

Device         Start        End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1       2048     616447    614400   300M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda2     616448    1638399   1021952   499M EFI System
/dev/sda3    1638400    1900543    262144   128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda4    1900544  206700543 204800000  97.7G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda5  206700544  956700671 750000128 357.6G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda6  956700672  957700095    999424   488M Linux filesystem
/dev/sda7  957700096 1000214527  42514432  20.3G Linux swap
...

These are from Ubuntu machines.

You are right, but if the extended partition does not include other partitions, you won't see the difference in its span compared to a primary partition. — Yaroslav Nikitenko, Oct 22 '17 at 15:21
Right, that's a valid case. In the fdisk -l output Id/Type fields also give good hints. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_type — ywu, Nov 09 '18 at 16:00

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 24 '12 at 08:09

0

What are the names of the partitions? primary partitions are numbered 1 to 4, for example: sda1, hdb2, etc...

Whereas logical partitions are numbered 5 and above.

The primary extended partition is always numbered 4.

Check link for info

answered Nov 24 '12 at 08:09

Waleed Hamra

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Your information is wrong, the extended partition is always numbered less than 5, but it doesn't have to be 4. You can also have primary partitions after extended partition. – Jimmy Mar 02 '14 at 15:31

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 20 '15 at 20:43

cat /proc/partitions

You'll get something like this:

major minor  #blocks  name

   8     0  488386584 sda
   8     1   52436128 sda1
   8     2          1 sda2
   8     5    2104483 sda5
   8     6   20972826 sda6
   8     7   52436128 sda7
   8     8  360434308 sda8
 179     0    3979776 mmcblk0
 179     1    3975680 mmcblk0p1

If the partition number (minor) is between 1 and 4, it is either primary or extended. The extended one will have 1 in the #blocks column (above, it's sda2).
If the partition number is 5 or higher, it is logical.

How to view if partitions primary or secondary in Linux

6 Answers6