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Access to Hard Disk Partitions

Warning : If the superuser execute e.g. the command rm -r / , all directories on all fixed disks and partitions are deleted. This instruction is substantially more thorough than the format instruction under DOS. Format deletes only one fixed disk. rm -r /deletes all directories in the general statement /. Since however several drives (also of other computers in the network) can be merged with Unix in each case into directories, last the result fatal. Mounte only fixed disk partitions if this is necesary! Unmount thereafter the fixed disk partitions immediately again! Turn admitted instruction on only exactly! Do not access SCSI fixed disks! muLinux this (still) does not support. Caution is required also with Windows NT partitions! Bind the fixed disk partitions as only as possible with read access (mount -r ... )

How are my Harddisk Partitions Called?

/# dmesg | grep "hd"
hda: SAMSUNG SV0643A, 6149MB w/482 kB
hdc: LTN 362, ATAPI, CDROM drive
hda: hda1 hda2 hda3

On my computer the Kernel output the above message. The second line also hdc in the start the CD-ROM drive indicates and does not continue to be not interesting in this paragraph.

(E)IDE fixed disks become also hd characterized in the start. I have thus a SAMSUNG SV064A harddisk with 6149 MByte. This information to the type of fixed disk is not further interesting however for the further work with muLinux.

The names of (E)IDE hard disk start with the letters hd. The first fixed disk becomes also hda defined, the second fixed disk also hdb etc. SCSI fixed disks begin with sd. Afterwards likewise the letters follow a, b or c.

Partitions of fixed disks are indicated by a following number. hda1 is the first partition on the first disk. hdb3 is the third partition on the second disk. The number of partitions can be taken also from the kernel massages. In the above example: hda: hda1 hda2 hda3. The command shows more exact information fdisk with the option -l (lis). Use this command here only with the option -l (lost of dates is possible)!

/# fdisk -l
   Device  Boot  Begin  Start  End     Block  Id  System
/dev/hda1            1      1    2    16033+  83  Linux native
/dev/hda2            3      3   15   104422+  82  Linux swap
/dev/hda3    *      16     16  784  6176992+  83  Linux native
hdc : tray open or drive not ready
hdc : tray open or drive not ready
[Ctrl] [C]
/# _

The information about hdc (CD-ROM) do not interest here. If no CD is in the drive so muLinux tried nevertheless information about it to keep. We interrupt this curiosity also [Ctrl] [C] .

In this example that has first (E)IDE drive three partitions (hda1, hda2 and hda3). Booted is from hda3 (*). The start and final cylinder are indicated as well as the number of blocks. The last columns indicate the type of the file system. Here Linux native (Id = 83) and Linux swap (Id = 82).

The people who knows its computer, with these specification already which will be able to begin. Interesting is in this example only hda3. Is probable the largest partition, the root partition /. The Swap partition might not be meaningful to the mount. hda1 is very small and contains reliably /boot.

Mount Harddisk Partitions

/# mount -r /dev/hda3 /c
/# _

With  ls /c  we see contents of this partition.

Unmount Hard Partitions

/# umount /c
/# _

Furthermore Configuration Options

Standbymodus for Harddisk in Laptops

/# setup -f standby
DO you want set standby (spindown)?:

Reading Windows NT filesystems

/# setup -f ntfs
DO you want WinNT file system (READ only) support?: