partitions

[jarves 0]

hi

i hav a question about partitions.

in windows u can hav 2 partitions c: and d:

in linux how will u do that??? having two partitions

i hav read some articles that when u make another partition u should set another mount point.

for example the first partition is / and then the second is /home

will the root partition still contain a home directory??

please help me i'm confused!!!

 

[jimf43 0]

Start out by reading this:

http://linux.org.mt/article/partnames

[blackpage 0]

hey there,

 

In reply to your questions ... a quick foreword

 

Devices in Windows

Windows presents devices to the user as an actual "mirror" of the hardware it has found being attached to the computer. That means the master-drive on IDE1 will always be enumerated as "C:", the 1st drive attached to the floppy-controller will be "A:" and so forth.

 

If I recall correctly, this "A:,B:,C: ..."-scheme comes from something we dinosaurs call "CP/M", a forefather of what has become known (and feared as "MS DOS". At this point you can pin down the fact that this method is limited and unflexible (you only have the letters "A"- to "Z" and up til Windows NT, for example, it was not possible to assign the slave-drive on IDE-1 the letter "D:" as "D:" was reserved for the master on the IDE-2-channel ... and so on).

 

Devices under Linux (and any other "*X"-system

Whereas Windows sees every device as "hardware", Linux sees (almost) everything as a file and so handles the attached devices from a more abstract point of view. The primary IDE-channel, for example, is represented by something that (in most cases) has the name "/dev/hda". And the file "/dev/hda" is consequently a "viewport" or "shortcut" to a specific piece of hardware, in our case: the IDE-1 HDD-controller interface.

 

The Linux filesystem

As laid out above, there is no "A/B/C/D"-limitation under an *X-system. And as everything under Linux is furthermore a "file" there is consequently just the need for a single filesystem that doesn't have to be split into anything like "C:" or "D:" ...

 

Mount-points

This filesystem in Linux starts at location "/" (slash or "root") and everything we need in order to work with attached devices unfolds at certain points within the hierarchy of this root.

 

The "mount-point" for the above mentioned "hardware-viewports", for example, reside in the "/dev"-directory and the place where all the fancy config-stuff lives is "mounted" in "/etc" ... and so on.

 

Mounting

Harddisks, harddisk-partitions and generally any form of "filesystems" are usually mounted through the "/mnt"-directory. In simple terms you just need to create a subdirectory and make some hardware "speak" through it. This is done via the "mount"-command ...

 

mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/windrive_c

 

In regular language this reads like this ...

 

"Dear Linux, include ("mount") the contents of the device that you find through the pointer in "/dev/hda1" in your global filesystem. The contents are of type ("-t") "Windows95/FAT32" ("vfat") and I would like to browse the content through the viewport at "/mnt/windrive_c)."

 

At this point you can celarly see that Linux doesn't care _where_ you mount your drives and partitions. To include your "D:"-drive, for example, you could go either for something short and easily accessable like ...

 

mount -t vfat /dev/hdb1 /d

 

or you could mount the same partition under ...

 

mount -t vfat /dev/hdb1 /linux_documents_and_settings/my_mountpoints/boy_i_really_like_typing

 

No matter where you mount it, it will still be just some specific spot under the initial "/"-filesystem.

 

Conclusion

Speaking in "hardware"-terms, a drive with e.g. 2 partitions has 2 independant data-storage-areas which Windows would refer to with different drive-letters. Linux summarizes everything under the slash (/) at certain (mount-)points as there is only one coherent filesystem.

 

So no matter how many drives, partitions etc. you mount in Linux .. all you get is one "huge" filesystem, and this is also all you need

 

cu

 

p.s.: definitely have to compile less stuff in the background! my postings get lengthy