about hard disk names

altarazul · 07-11-2008, 11:58 PM

hello, thanks in advance, a few days ago i start a linux ibm training, and in the first test was this question:

What is the device file for the first logical drive in the extended partition of the secondary master IDE drive? include the full path and filename

most of my class mates answer /dev/hda5, others answer was /dev/hdb5, but... reading the manual we realize that the rigth answer must be /dev/hdc5

is it correct? is the name hdc for the secondary master even if there is not a slave hard disk at all?

fedoralinuxjunkie · 07-12-2008, 12:55 AM

Hello altarazul.

/dev/hdc is NORMALLY for CD-Roms...unless you have a SATA cd-rom like I do...if I remember correctly, in your case, it would be /dev/hdb5 (/dev is the location, hdb is the second hard drive, and 5 is the partition #)...hope that clears things up

(also, for SATA hard drives, it would go like this: first partition of the master drive would be /dev/sda1, second partition on master would be /dev/sda2, and so on...for a second hard drive (slave), it would be /dev/sdb, second would be /dev/sdb2, and so on)

Tuttle · 07-12-2008, 12:56 AM

yes, /dev/hdc5, although I have noticed that ubuntu calls them sd* regardless of whether they are IDE, SATA, SCSI etc..

JZL240I-U · 07-14-2008, 07:44 AM

/dev/hdc5 with a "normal" (old) IDE configuration (two masters, two slaves). The newest distributions (kernel >= 2.6.26?) use /dev/sdc5, due to a new driver in the kernel. Look into the /dev directory, there is something like this directory /dev/devices (or some such) which in turn contains /by_label and /by-UUID ... they all contain differing valid descriptors for all partitions and devices.

altarazul · 07-14-2008, 11:53 PM

thanks for the answers!!