From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Aug 26 18:22:52 2009 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 14462106568C for ; Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:22:51 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rsmith@xs4all.nl) Received: from smtp-vbr17.xs4all.nl (smtp-vbr17.xs4all.nl [194.109.24.37]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8ABBD8FC2D for ; Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:22:51 +0000 (UTC) Received: from slackbox.xs4all.nl (slackbox.xs4all.nl [213.84.242.160]) by smtp-vbr17.xs4all.nl (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id n7QIMkVU073733; Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:22:46 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from rsmith@xs4all.nl) Received: by slackbox.xs4all.nl (Postfix, from userid 1001) id E3460BA9D; Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:22:45 +0200 (CEST) Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:22:45 +0200 From: Roland Smith To: John Almberg Message-ID: <20090826182245.GB23120@slackbox.xs4all.nl> References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="A6N2fC+uXW/VQSAv" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: X-GPG-Fingerprint: 1A2B 477F 9970 BA3C 2914 B7CE 1277 EFB0 C321 A725 X-GPG-Key: http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/pubkey.txt X-GPG-Notice: If this message is not signed, don't assume I sent it! User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) X-Virus-Scanned: by XS4ALL Virus Scanner Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Can partitions span more than one drive? 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: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:22:52 -0000 --A6N2fC+uXW/VQSAv Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 08:45:47AM -0400, John Almberg wrote: > Question: is it possible to just expand my existing /backup partition =20 > to encompass both the current drive and the new drive? I'm guessing =20 > not, since Chapter 8 in "Absolute FreeBSD" says that a partition is =20 > part of a slice, which is part of a physical drive, but maybe some =20 > bright person has come up with an app that overcomes that limitation. You could use gconcat, but you'd have to partition, label and newfs this new combined device which would render your current data unreadable. And on a concatenated disk the risk of failure is increased. If one of the two drives dies, you'll lose all data. If you want to combine disks, use some form of RAID to protect yourself from a dying disk. :-) Roland --=20 R.F.Smith http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/ [plain text _non-HTML_ PGP/GnuPG encrypted/signed email much appreciated] pgp: 1A2B 477F 9970 BA3C 2914 B7CE 1277 EFB0 C321 A725 (KeyID: C321A725) --A6N2fC+uXW/VQSAv Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.12 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAkqVfXUACgkQEnfvsMMhpyUfFgCdG4FYGOCSzEtadfuNJup1bWpt DMQAnjTzqIYtNLjaK6pbCoiCLH0x+75I =DEs6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --A6N2fC+uXW/VQSAv--