How to list all drives and their file systems on Linux

[Leon van Heerden]

There are a couple commands to list the available drives on Linux.

1. The proc partitions file
   Running the following command will list all the drives and partitions that were detected on Linux.
   

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   cat /proc/partitions

   
   
   The output will look something like this:
   

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   major minor  #blocks  name

   8        0  488386584 sda
   8        1  486296576 sda1
   8        2          1 sda2
   8        5    2086912 sda5
   8       16  244198584 sdb
   8       17  244196032 sdb1


   
   Where the "sda" list the first SATA drive and the size in bytes.
   The "sda1" is the first partition and it's size in bytes and so on.
   The "sdb" is the second drive and the "sdb1" is the first partition on the second drive.
   Now that you know which drives are listed, you can use the cfdisk command to determine the file system on the partitions.
   
   
2. fdisk "note this can be dangerous if you write the incorrect settings"
   If you run the following command, you will see the drive's listed partitions and what file systems are on them.
   Note that you just use the drive, no partition numbers.
   

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   fdisk /dev/sdb

   
   Press "p" to print the list of partitions.
   
   The output should look like this:
   

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   root@servername:~/# fdisk /dev/sdb

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       30401   244196032    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Command (m for help):


   
   
   The "System" column will show the listed file system for each partiton.
   Press "q" to quit this program.