Using parted to create a new partition table [root@ractw21 ~]# parted GNU Parted 3.1 Using /dev/sda Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands. (parted) select /dev/sdb Using /dev/sdb (parted) print Error: /dev/sdb: unrecognised disk label Model: ATA VBOX HARDDISK (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 21.5GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: unknown Disk Flags: (parted) mklabel msdos (parted) print Model: ATA VBOX HARDDISK (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 21.5GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Disk Flags: Number Start End Size Type File system Flags (parted) mkpart Partition type? primary/extended? primary File system type? [ext2]? ext4 Start? 1 End? -1 (parted) print Model: ATA VBOX HARDDISK (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 21.5GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Disk Flags: Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 1049kB 21.5GB 21.5GB primary Create an ext4 Filesystem and mount the partition a first time [root@ractw21 ~]# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1 mke2fs 1.42.9 (28-Dec-2013) Filesystem label= OS type: Linux Block size=4096 (log=2) Fragment size=4096 (log=2) Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks 1310720 inodes, 5242368 blocks 262118 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user First data block=0 Maximum filesystem blocks=2153775104 160 block groups 32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group 8192 inodes per group Superblock backups stored on blocks: 32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208, 4096000 Allocating group tables: done Writing inode tables: done Creating journal (32768 blocks): done Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done [root@ractw21 ~]# mkdir /backup [root@ractw21 ~]# mount /dev/sdb1 /backup [root@ractw21 ~]# df /dev/sdb1 Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/sdb1 20509264 45080 19399328 1% /backup