From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Sep 16 19:21:10 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from smtp2.cybersurf.net (smtp2.cybersurf.net [209.197.145.112]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5898337B409 for ; Sun, 16 Sep 2001 19:21:05 -0700 (PDT) Received: from 3web.net ([209.197.185.105]) by smtp2.cybersurf.net (Netscape Messaging Server 4.15) with SMTP id GJSBUT00.F34 for ; Sun, 16 Sep 2001 20:20:53 -0600 Received: by 3web.net (EzMTS MTSAgent 1.22b Service) ; Sun, 16 Sep 01 20:21:07 -0600 for Received: from 3web.net (127.0.0.1) by 3web.net (EzMTS MTSSmtp 1.50 Service) ; Sun, 16 Sep 01 15:18:53 -0600 for Received: by mandy.rockingd.calgary.ab.ca (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Sun, 16 Sep 2001 15:18:33 -0600 Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 15:18:30 -0600 From: Duke Normandin <01031149@3web.net> To: Freebsd Questions Subject: Slice/Partition thread -- follow-up Message-ID: <20010916151830.A132273@mandy.rockingd.calgary.ab.ca> Mail-Followup-To: Freebsd Questions Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i X-Envelope-Receiver: Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG I've read and re-read the recent thread concerning fdisk/disklabel -- slices/partitions. Life and Unix are not always straight forward ;) I've attempted to recap and summarise the meat of the said thread as follows. Would you guys please review it, amending where necessary. ################################################################## BSD views a HDD as a combination of "slices" and "partittions". BSD is able to carve up a HDD into a maximum of 4 slices using the BSD version of 'fdisk'. BSD carves up slices into a maximum of 8 sub-divisions called "partitions" (a to h) using 'disklabel'. BSD will recognize an existing DOS primary partition, and use it as one of its slices. A BSD slice is roughly equivalent to a DOS primary partition , as well as a DOS extended partition. The BSD slice/partition system of organizing a HDD, can be looked at as being similar to a directory/sub-directory tree. As such, the BSD terminology 'ad0s1a', can be "inflated" and "decoded" as follows: a (or s) d0 s1 a-h a=ATA HDD HDD #1 slice #1 s=SCSI HDD |__________ partition a |__________ partition b | . | . |__________ partition h The remaining 3 allowed HDD slices would be called: a (or s) d0 s2 a-h a (or s) d0 s3 a-h a (or s) d0 s4 a-h The first slice of HDD #2 would be called: ad1s1a BSD has predetermined the usage of some of its partitions as follows: Partition Usage --------- ----- a boot b swap c entire disk d-h user defined #################################################################### Well that's it! What have I screwed up? Can it be better said? After your reviews and amendments, I'm going to print out the resultant FAQ and take it to out local High School and *see* if the FAQ flies. ;) TIA.... -- -duke Calgary, Alberta, Canada To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message