CentOS-6.2

I created a new VirtIO disk for one of my virtual machines. Previous experience has taught me that I need to partition it before attempting to add the new storage to the physical volume set of the intended guest.

Up to now I have simply accepted the defaults given by fdisk after telling it that I want a new partition. The defaults always exclude the first 2048 sectors.

Disk /dev/vg_vhost01/lv_vm_inet09.harte-lyne.ca_01: 33.6 GB, 33554432000 bytes 109 heads, 61 sectors/track, 9856 cylinders, total 65536000 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x2b33a3c9

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/vg_vhost01/lv_vm_inet09.harte-lyne.ca_01p1 2048 65535999 32766976 83 Linux

Why? Is this space reserved for a boot partition? For my purposes can I simply use sector 0 to max sector size and override the default values provided by fdisk?