A really dumb question about copying files...
 

I'm pretty new to Linux, and I have a question that is probably pretty rudimentary, but I can't find the answer anywhere.

I am trying to copy some files on my main bootable partition to a logical partition I created. They are just backup files that I save when I have to reformat my computer. This partition is on another hard drive. Basically, I need to copy them from /home/myname/Desktop to /dev/hdb5. How do I do this?

Thank you.

where is hdb5 mounted?

to copy all you do is
cp /home/myname/Desktop/<whatever file> /<where>/<hdb5>/<is mounted>

the man page can tell you the switches you can use also............http://man.linuxquestions.org/?query...ction=0&type=2

example:..........I used this to back up my newly made LFS partition.........I used the -Rav switches to keep the permissions/attributes/path_structure unchanged from how it was built......

I guess that's part of the problem. I don't know where /dev/hdb5 is mounted. How do I find that out?

well, is it a partition you are currently using?

To list mounted partitions:
$ df -h
To list all partitions:
$ cat /proc/partitions

if it isn't mounted, you need to take a look at /etc/fstab and see if there is something in there for it.