How to Create Ext4 Filesystem in Linux

The Ext4 or extended filesystem is a popular filesystem in Linux. It is an upgrade over Ext3 filesystem that offers more features and overcomes many shortcomings of Ext3. Also, it offers better performance, reliability and speed. It can be used on removable disks as well as hard disks. In this article, we will look at how to create Ext4 filesystem in Linux.

How to Create Ext4 Filesystem in Linux

Here are the steps to create Ext4 filesystem in Linux. You need to be logged in as root or user with sudo privileges to be able to perform the next steps.

1. List Partitions

Open terminal and run the following command to list all the disks available on your system.

# fdisk -l 
OR
# parted -l

You will see the following kind of output.

Device     Boot Start      End  Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/xvda1 *     2048 16777182 16775135   8G 83 Linux
/dev/xvda2 *     16777182 33552317 16775135   8G 84 Linux

2. Create partition

In the above output we have 2 disks that can be formatted. We will use parted utility tool to format /dev/xvda2.

# parted /dev/xvda2

We will use mklabel utility tool to add new disk label.

# (parted) mklabel new_disk

Next, we use mkpart tool to create a new partition. You will see couple of prompts asking if it is a primary/secondary partition, and which file system to use. Enter primary/secondary for the 1st prompt as per your requirement, and enter ext4 for the second prompt. Also set the start and end sector of partition to create it.

(parted) mkpart                                                            
Partition type? primary/extended? primary 
File system type? [ext2]? ext4 
Start? 1 
End? 20290

Once the partition is created, you can print its details using print command.

# (parted) print

3. Format New Partition

Next, you need to format the newly created partition using mkfs.ext4 or mkefs command as shown.

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/xvda2
OR
# mke4fs -t ext4 /dev/xvda2

You can then label the partition using e4label command.

# e4label /dev/xvda2 disk2-part1
OR
# e2label /dev/xvda2 disk2-part1

4. Mount New Partition

Finally, we create mount points for new partitions and mount them.

# sudo mkdir /mnt/disk2-part1
# sudo mount /dev/sdb1 //mnt/disk2-part1

Now using df -h command you can list all file systems on your disk.

# df -hT

Please note, this filesystem will be unmounted on reboot. In order to automatically mount it during reboot, you need to add it to /etc/fstab file. Open it in a terminal.

$ sudo vi /etc/fstab

Add the following entry.

/dev/xvda2   /mnt/disk2-part1  ext4   defaults    0   0

That’s it. Now we have created new Ext4 partition in Linux, formatted and mounted it. Ext4 filesystem is better than Ext3 as it offers better performance, reduced load time, and increased number of supported devices. It also supports bigger files.

How to Create Ext4 Filesystem in Linux