From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Apr 14 20:53:42 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C070E1065674 for ; Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:53:42 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bsd.talk@gmail.com) Received: from yw-out-2324.google.com (yw-out-2324.google.com [74.125.46.29]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7CFB78FC33 for ; Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:53:42 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bsd.talk@gmail.com) Received: by yw-out-2324.google.com with SMTP id 2so800116ywt.13 for ; Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:53:37 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type; bh=0D3r0Y7lQa2Bf7eBilIPfv3p/m+M9LOHUV6PbC7Cszc=; b=PPNiuJSRVPX1eaNhyglmxN2AUT6aoH95TOFIo0fsSGgtvmSC2zPXrdDIDrCMKZSc41lKTP9XQHlNkoGumojkUpPW2lPGWTn26MXnTydUch5fvTe4hBHZ/mxRwJIFh63Z5Q2E94HO0bKZOKmZiOEjeIx4kZ/Ex1HHSLavg8DRTdo= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type; b=HgklmcTOgU73z9FQM3lyoTinfxdfDirpxpDobFJSPlA+o/+0ldX5itHpSxgmAgj6RUDI9oQZ0raJML/74wtmV8Tf06oPpbtmfks/4zV5JsHZV9LNWcNB+d0kJ8lvySiFl9p2fAr0CUMoM7wHlZDr05lcGGHKbewjjFuiPoYicTM= Received: by 10.150.12.10 with SMTP id 10mr6676240ybl.205.1208204844288; Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:27:24 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.150.11.16 with HTTP; Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:27:24 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:27:24 -0700 From: "Dharma Wolford" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Subject: HDD partitioning question... X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:53:42 -0000 Hi folks, (I'm a relative newcomer to all this... thanks for your patience & help.) I've installed FreeBSD 6.2 on a system that will be primarily used as an FTP server. It has 2 drives - one for the OS and the other for the FTP storage. My question is about the storage drive in this case. You can see how I have things partitioned right now: ################################# [root@mybox /var/log]# mount /dev/da0s1a on / (ufs, local) devfs on /dev (devfs, local) /dev/da0s1d on /tmp (ufs, local, soft-updates) /dev/da0s1f on /usr (ufs, local, soft-updates) /dev/da0s1e on /var (ufs, local, soft-updates) /dev/da1 on /usr/home (ufs, local, soft-updates) [root@mybox /var/log]# ################################# I started by trying to use fdisk to partition the storage drive (/dev/da1) but was getting errors which I don't exactly recall - something about a problem with the 'block device'. Anyway, then I wound up using the command "newfs -O 2 /dev/da1" which seemed to work and I was then able to mount and use the drive. My question is: is there anything wrong with having "/dev/da1" mounted an in-use? Should I have created a partition like "/dev/da1s1a" or something? I seem to remember somebody once chiding me for having formatted or mounted the 'block device' itself instead of a partition... is this making any sense to anyone? Clearly I need to know more about *NIX file systems (slices, partitions, block devices) and best practices or some such - I am working on it but obviously have a ways to go! Thanks very much! dharma