mjhjmtu

I'm installing NixOs on a ThinkPad X220. Though I'm very comfortable in the shell, it's the first time I've set up my own system, and I'm running into some unknowns while trying to partition the hard drive with fdisk.

The laptop currently has Windows installed, and I intend to replace it entirely with NixOS. I ran fdisk to see the current partitions and to replace them with a fresh partitioning scheme.

After deleting the original partitions, I created a small (500MB) boot partition, and fdisk reported:

Partition #1 contains a ntfs signature.
Do you want to remove the signature? [Y]es/[N]o:

I'm not sure what this means, and googling "ntfs signature" didn't turn up anything illuminating, so I aborted the whole thing (for now).

Can anyone explain the significance of that warning? Will removing the ntfs signature have adverse affects down the road?

I also wonder if I should try to convert the drive from MBR to GPT, partly because a number of people seem to suggest using gdisk to manage partitions. I'm not sure whether this hardware supports GPT, and whether it boots via BIOS or UEFI.

For reference, a fuller log of my fdisk session:

[root@nixos:~]# fdisk /dev/sda

Welcome to fdisk ...

Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 111.8 GiB, 120034123776 bytes, 234441648 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: dos
Disk identifier: 0x65f5b331

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 2048 1026047 1024000 500M 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 1026048 199606271 198580224 94.7G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 199606272 234441646 34835375 16.6G 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 199608320 234440703 34832384 16.6G bc Acronis FAT32 LBA 

Command (m for help): d 
Partition number (1-3,5, default 5): 5
Partition 5 has been deleted.
Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-3, default 3): 3
Partition 3 has been deleted.
Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1,2, default 2): 2
Partition 2 has been deleted.
Command (m for help): d
Selected partition 1
Partition 1 has been deleted.

Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 111.8 GiB, 120034123776 bytes, 234441648 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: dos
Disk identifier: 0x65f5b331

Command (m for help): n
Partition type
 p primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
 e extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1
First sector (2048-234441647, default 2048): 
Last sector, +sectors or +sizeK,M,G,T,P (2048-234441647, default 234441647): +500M

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 500 MiB.
Partition #1 contains a ntfs signature.

Do you want to remove the signature? [Y]es/[N]o:

ok, the quick answer is:

Yes, you can remove the ntfs flag, which is a Windows thing, you won't need it when making your NixOs installation.

The second question, well some people prefer GPT over MBR because you can create unlimited partitions on the disk... I use MBR and have 3 primary partitions (3 Linux distros) and one extended partition which is my /home. The thing is that usually, windows must be on GPT partitions, thus if you want to have dual-boot or use UEFI, then you need GPT. On that case, you need to run gdisk to be able to set the GPT label.

Hope it helps,