SORT LINUX PARTITIONS CORRECTLY

Introduction

Hi and welcome to my blog! Here goes a quick tip on how to properly sort partitions number in Linux.

Let’s think that we had a disk /dev/sda with 4 partitions:

1
2
3
4

/dev/sda1
/dev/sda2
/dev/sda3
/dev/sda4

Now, if we have to repartition our disk and delete /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3 to make /dev/sda1 larger, occasionally you will end up with /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda4 when it should be only /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2.

The fix

To fix this mess and sort the partitions correctly we can use fdisk which is present by default in almost every Linux installation. Remember that fdisk and most of the partition/disk tools are very powerful and can be dangerous. Make sure to have a backup of your important files.

Now, let’s do the job. Begin typing sudo fdisk /dev/sda.

Then type **"m" to see the help.

Press “p” to print the partition list.

You’ll see that they are unsorted.

Now, type “x” to access the advanced options.

Then type “m” again to see the help.

Press “f” to fix the order of the partitions.

Press “p” again to print the partition list.

Now, they should be sorted correctly 😉.

Press “w” to write changes to the disk and exit.

It’s done.