On 11.08.19 08:18, Hendrik Boom wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 11, 2019 at 02:13:48PM +1000, Erik Christiansen wrote:
> > $ blkid /dev/sdb1
> > /dev/sdb1: LABEL="fred" UUID="7713e1b5-1bdf-41d1-9aa9" TYPE="ext2"
> >
> > As you have not specified an fstype in the mount command, it'll normally
> > use the blkid libraries to discover the fstype in just this way, so
> > let's see what it finds.
>
> april:/farhome/hendrik# blkid /dev/sda4
> /dev/sda4: PARTLABEL="Linux filesystem"
> PARTUUID="14fdecea-4672-4d03-9660-868f3fd630ec"
> april:/farhome/hendrik#
>
> And if it doesn't mention type, should I presume that it's likely a
> partition that does not have a file system installed? Or at
> least not one the current Linux system can handle?

That seems a fairly safe bet. I don't have a partition here that hasn't
had mkfs run on it, to confirm, but you'd expect some sort of
"unrecognised filesystem" error if there's something alien there.

You could try an explicit probe:

$ blkid -p -n ntfs,vfat,ext3,ext4 /dev/sdb1

That gives more information if there's a hit, else silent return.

But it looks like you're about ready to run mkfs on it, as there's no
sign of life there. (At least a form you can communicate with. :-)

Erik