Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2001 12:28:03 -0800 (PST) From: Wayne Lubin <wayneclubin@yahoo.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Questions regarding slices and partitions Message-ID: <20011102202803.70464.qmail@web14706.mail.yahoo.com>
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First of all, please understand that my questions refer to utility programs bundled with freebsd such as fdisk, disklabel, and newfs. I am not interested here in the sysinstall program that is used to initialy install freebsd, even though I realize that what I want to do can be done with it, and in fact for most people would make the process even easier. So if your response to my post would be something like "just use sysintall" then please realize that this sort of response will not help me here and refrain from doing so. Thank you. Question 1: Please refer to man fdisk. What is the difference between the i and the u switches (without the f switch) for the fdisk utility program. Is the difference that i is used to either install the record on a disk that currently has no record on it, as well as completely erasing the current record and updating it with a new record, where as u is used for disks that currently have a record, and all you want to do is change it a little? Question 2: Please refer to man disklabel. What is the difference between the w and the e switch? Also, does this utility enter conversation mode once initiated because I don't see any way to pass it the start sector and the size for the partition to be created from the information given unless maybe it enters a conversation mode? Also, does this utility offer a way to back out such as the fdisk utility does so that one can practice with it to get the hang of it? Question 3: Let's say I have some unused space on a disk and on that disk I have a freebsd slice with only one partition(in other words there are letters left for more partitions). Can I make the slice larger with the fdisk utility, and then stick in another partition with the disklabel utility, without loosing any of the partition that was originaly in the slice? I ask this cause I thought that I saw somewhere that when you edit the slice information with fdisk, that any information originaly in the slice, for example maybe your entire / file system :), is lost. Thank you. I really appreciate your help. Wayne __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Find a job, post your resume. http://careers.yahoo.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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