Saturday, February 22, 2014

Naming Convention in Linux:

When I started working with Linux, I didn't knew what hda, sda, sdb, sdc meant( I have been using Windows for long where is shows C drive and my expectation from Linux was same). I initially used to ignored it thinking it might be this is how Linux shows the drive letters.

But while working with my Linux peers I realized that they can simply tell what type of drive it is by seeing the drive name and I was :-O. So thought of writing this article explaining how is drive named in Linux for my Linux beginner friends.

Linux uses a very different naming scheme that provides far more
information than that used by MSDOS or Microsoft Windows
                                                          
                                                                       /dev/xxyN
  • �� The dev refers to the devices directory. The devices directory is where all
information about devices is stored
  • �� The xx refers to the type of hard disk. The xx is replaced by hd for an Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) hard disk and by sd for a Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) hard disk
IDE Hard Disk = /dev/hd
SCSI Hard Disk /d /sd

/dev/xxyN
Primary Master = /dev/hda
Primary Slave = /dev/hdb
Secondary Master = /dev/hdc
Secondary Slave = /dev/hdd

  • Primary partitions are represented by the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4.
  • Logical partitions start with 5.
  • �� /dev/hda1 is the device file for the first primary partition on the first EIDE disk.
  • �� /dev/hda5 is the first logical partition on the second IDE disk.



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