Windows uses the notation A:, B:, C: for referring to drives. Linux follows a different methodology. A drive in Linux is called a device (so are monitors, keyboards and mice and almost anything else), and is treated as if it were a file. So, reading data from a drive or writing to it similar to reading from or writing to a file.
IDE drive partitions in Linux are referred in the form:
/dev/
Unlike Windows, Linux differentiates between physical hard drives and logical partitions within physical drives. Hence drive naming in Linux is a two-step process. First you need to know the name of the IDE device and then determine the
Disk | Device name |
Primary Master | hda |
Primary Slave | hdb |
Secondary Master | hdc |
Secondary Slave | hdd |
Let’s take the example of a hard disk connected as Primary Master. Suppose you have a primary partition on it. It will be called C: in Windows. If you need further drives, you have to create an extended partition and logical partitions within it. Suppose you have two such logical drives. Here’s how they will be named.
In Windows | In Linux |
C: | /dev/hda1 |
D: | /dev/hda5 |
E: | /dev/hda6 |
Note that the
|
Floppy drives, A: and B: in Windows, in Linux are referred to as /dev/fd0 and /dev/fd1 respectively.
Mount points
To use a partition you must assign a directory to it. This is called mounting. This is similar to assigning drive letters to partitions in Windows. Once mounted, the corresponding directory (called mount point) will contain all the directory and files on the partition or disk.
When you create a Linux partition using disk druid (see Installing PCQLinux 7.1, page 60), you specify a mount point for it like ‘/’.
PCQLinux, by default, creates mount points for the floppy drive and CD-ROM drive in the ‘mnt’ subdirectory in the root directory (/). They are /mnt/floppy and /mnt/cdrom respectively. In case of presence of another floppy drive, its mount point will be /mnt/floppy1 and in case of another CDROM drive or a CD Writer, its mount point will be
/mnt/cdrom1.
To use a drive you must first mount it (on the mount point). Unmounting (the opposite of mount) is sometimes required, like when you want to eject a mounted CD-ROM. In PCQLinux 7.1 you can mount a CD or floppy by inserting it into the drive and clicking on its icon on the KDE desktop. To unmount (release), right click on the icon and select Unmount.
Shekhar Govindarajan