Michael, It's not a dumb question but the answer is that you should put a partition on the disk. The partition table does more than just carve up the disk. Even if you are using the entire disk, create a single partition on it first and format that with whatever file system you plan to use. Seriously look at using a volume manager like LVM2. It makes file system maintenance so much easier. This communication, including any attachments, may contain information that is proprietary, privileged, confidential or legally exempt from disclosure. If you are not a named addressee, you are hereby notified that you are not authorized to read, print, retain a copy of or disseminate any portion of this communication without the consent of the sender and that doing so may be unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender via return e-mail and delete it from your system.