two hard drive two distributions how can i access the other drive

timbo1 · 10-27-2007, 08:26 AM

G'day
I had FC6 running on one hard drive but due to that drive filling up I put fedora 7 on my other (larger) hard drive. I stuffed up with the options for grub so now the data on the fc6 drive is there but I'm not sure how to access it. (mainly because linux is so stable I havent had to dive under the hood that often in my years as a user)
I did a fdisk -l as root and got:

Disk /dev/sda: 15.0 GB, 15020457984 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1826 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 14 1826 14562922+ 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/sdb: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 14 4865 38973690 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/dm-2: 14.3 GB, 14361296896 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1745 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Disk /dev/dm-2 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-3: 503 MB, 503316480 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 61 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Disk /dev/dm-3 doesn't contain a valid partition table

The answer is probably really simple but I'd prefer to pick the experts brains before i really stuff things up

thanx
Timbo

rednuht · 10-28-2007, 05:10 PM

Ok, good work on finding out what drives are on the sytstem.
You have two scsii drives both with two partitions.
/dev/sda is the first drive and /dev/sdb is the second drive.
To mount the first partition of the first drive which appears to tbe the smaller of the two (15G)
(can confirm by checking the output of

Code:

mount

1. make a directory to act as the mount point, these vary from distribution but you can actually put them anywhere.
in my gentoo system they are under /mnt
so

Code:

mkdir /mnt/sda1

or

Code:

mkdir /mnt/oldharddrive

2. (usually as root) mount the drive

Code:

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1

or

Code:

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/oldharddrive

3. access the files

Code:

ls /mnt/sda1

or

Code:

ls /mnt/oldharddrive

will list all your files.
4. unmount the drive when finished.

Code:

umount /mnt/sda1

or

Code:

umount /mnt/oldharddrive

5. if its something you want in a permanent setup, look at the /etc/fstab file and add a new line for your drive.

vatten · 10-28-2007, 05:12 PM

boot one system then write in bash

Code:

df

and check the output the if it is /dev/sda then you should mount /dev/sdb devices and vice versa
then make a new dir where you want to mount it and simply write mount /dev/sdxx <the dir you made> replace the first x with a or b and the second with the number of the correct partion
you might have to specify filesystem, and that you do with the flag -t. If you have formated it with ext3 simply write mount /dev/sdxx /<the dir> -t ext3

michaelk · 10-28-2007, 05:57 PM

By default Fedora creates 2 partitions, a /boot (sda1,sdb1) and an LVM partition (sda2,sdb2) which contains / and swap. LVMs can not be mounted via the usual method.

You might want to check out the LVM howto to understand how they work as well as this link for mounting your / from the other distribution.
http://www.brandonhutchinson.com/Mou...VM_volume.html

timbo1 · 10-29-2007, 06:35 AM

michaelk that link was the absolute ducks guts worked a treat. Also thannxto everyone else that posted a reply to my question Very much appreciated.
ta
Timbo