UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

The disk "/dev/sdf" has a size of 290GB, that part should be obvious.

The other disk "/dev/sdh" was not yet partitioned. A disk drive has to be written with some low-level information prior to be used by an operating system. This is the "partitioning" first, which divides the disk in one or more logical "disks" - partitions. Only after partitioning these logical disks can be used to store filesystems on them. Storing the file system information is called "formatting".

Think of a disk like a bare storage room: to actually store something in it you first have to build some shelves, on which to store the goods you want to store, probably prepare a list where you can enter all the things you stored and the place they are at to find them again, etc.. Formatting is like building these shelves and the list. It is preparing the storage room for actually storing goods there.

I hope this helps.

bakunin