Ubuntu/Linux disk management commands

Here are the most commonly used Ubuntu/Linux disk management commands with a short explanation for each. These will help you check disk usage, list disks, inspect partitions, mount/unmount, and manage file systems.

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✅ Basic disk usage commands

1. Show disk space usage (human-readable)

df -h

2. Show disk usage of a directory

du -sh /path/to/directory

3. Show usage of root folder (sorted)

sudo du -xh / | grep '[0-9\.]\+G' | sort -hr | head -30

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✅ List disks and partitions

4. Detailed list of disks

lsblk

5. Show disk partitions

sudo fdisk -l

6. List partition UUIDs

blkid

7. Show S.M.A.R.T. disk health

sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda

(Requires sudo apt install smartmontools)

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✅ Mounting & unmounting disks

8. Mount a disk

sudo mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt

9. Unmount a disk

sudo umount /dev/sdX1

10. Reload all mounts from /etc/fstab

sudo mount -a

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✅ Disk formatting commands

11. Format as EXT4

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX1

12. Format as FAT32

sudo mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sdX1

13. Format as NTFS

sudo mkfs.ntfs /dev/sdX1

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✅ File system checks and repair

14. Check a filesystem

sudo fsck /dev/sdX1

15. Force fsck on next reboot

sudo touch /forcefsck

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✅ Disk performance

16. Test disk speed

sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

(Requires sudo apt install hdparm)

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✅ Disk creation & resizing

17. Partition manager (text UI)

sudo cfdisk /dev/sda

18. Resize a partition (CLI)

sudo parted /dev/sda