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When i use fdisk to create a new partition i get an error which says 

Partition #3 contains a ext4 signature Do you want to remove the signature? [Y]es/[N]o:

This error is not a problem but i am wondering why this error even comes up when the partition has not even been created with a filesystem.

While creating a partition i only had two partitions which were #1 and #2, there was no third partition at all. So how is there already a signature of a ext4 filesystem on the partition?

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  • Partitions get a signature so the type is known. A small byte sequence is written to distinguish for example Linux filesystems (ext*) from swap. This doesn't mean anything but helps avoiding errors like using LUKS to encrypt the wrong partition, e.g. an EFI system partition or to write an ext-filesystem to a swap partition. Did you check initial layout with fdisk -l? Is it a used harddisk/ storage? Maybe restore the partition table and peek into the files showing up. Commented Aug 14, 2022 at 15:39

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Did you check (non-interactively) with "-l": fdisk -l /dev/sda? Or just fdisk -l? To get an overwiev.

This gives me:

Device Start End Sectors Size Type /dev/sda1 2048 83888127 83886080 40G Linux filesystem /dev/sda2 83888128 109053951 25165824 12G Linux root (x86-64) /dev/sda3 109053952 142608383 33554432 16G Linux filesystem /dev/sda4 276826112 411043839 134217728 64G Linux filesystem /dev/sda5 411043840 415238143 4194304 2G EFI System /dev/sda16 142609000 166609000 24000001 11.5G Linux root (x86-64) Partition table entries are not in disk order.

As you can see, the end of sda3 is the beginning of sda16 (end / start sectors). This happended because I "named" my fourth partition "16" and not "4". Now I have that warning or hint. (I also left some holes...)

So "sda16", would that be #4 (physical) or #6 (numeric sort, like output of fdisk) or #16 (number I gave to that partition) in your fdisk? busybox or util-linux?

ADDED:

but then it is no error (never was), just a confusing comfirmation by fdisk? With my fdisk I have never seen this, but it has --wipe or -w option which handles exactly that: depending on interactive or not, AUTO, NEVER or ALWAYS wipe (says manpage).

I just checked my partitions with wipefs: sda1 to sda4 have one line, sda5 has 3 lines, sda16 has no line. I don't understand why. If you end up with a partition #3 after answering that question Y or N, it should be OK.

The question could mean: On this newly created #3, keep or wipe the signature?

fdisk -V gives me: "fdisk from util-linux 2.34"

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    i have tried this but my partition table only contains two enteries which are /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2. When i create a new /dev/sda3 partition this error i mentioned in my question appears. i have not named it incorrectly as you have i have named it normally. Commented Jun 30, 2019 at 12:27
  • I added a part to my answer...is there more confusion than error in this all? Commented Jun 30, 2019 at 13:47

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