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Old 09-03-2008, 10:39 AM   #1
SHENGTON
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Where can I find the two partitions in Linux?


Hi guys, good evening.

I'm a bit confuse with this Linux partition. In Windows, if we have two partitions and when we try to open the My Computer we can see it immediately the two partitions. In Linux, when we open the Computer under the Places menu, all we can see are the CD/DVD drive, floppy drive and the FileSystem. We can't see any partitions appear in the Computer. I know that there's no drive letters in Linux.

My question is:
1. Where can I find the two partitions?

Thanks and God bless.
 
Old 09-03-2008, 10:54 AM   #2
odcheck
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oh this is a could be very long answer

so if you have for example a IDE Harddrive attached as master on the primary IDE Channel
So in Linux "everything is a file" there are devices in our case it would be
/dev/hda

on this device we create a primary partition and an extended partition including 3 logical partitions using fdisk
then we've got for e.g.

/dev/hda1
/dev/hda5
/dev/hda6
/dev/hda7

now we need also a mountpoint on those and a filesystem as well after we created that

/dev/hda1 /
/dev/hda5 /tmp
/dev/hda6 /home
/dev/hda7 swap

to list your partition you can either use a gui like gparted or fdisk or have a look in the /proc filesystem wich is kind of a virtual "live" system.
cat /proc/partitions
or
fdisk -l

So on the "/" in our setup you'll find folders like var, opt, usr and so on.

The best option for you would be to take a look at google: wiki linux filesystem
or google: wiki linux fhs

I guess some more people will replay to your thread so watch out.
 
Old 09-03-2008, 11:43 AM   #3
pixellany
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SHENGTON View Post
Hi guys, good evening.

I'm a bit confuse with this Linux partition. In Windows, if we have two partitions and when we try to open the My Computer we can see it immediately the two partitions. In Linux, when we open the Computer under the Places menu, all we can see are the CD/DVD drive, floppy drive and the FileSystem. We can't see any partitions appear in the Computer. I know that there's no drive letters in Linux.

My question is:
1. Where can I find the two partitions?

Thanks and God bless.
Welcome to LQ!!

I suggest that you not try to make exact comparisons between Linux and Windows. Not every version of Linux has a folder called "My Computer". Further, Linux may not automatically mount every partition that it finds. (Again, it depends on the distribution).

That fastest way to see what is happening is in a terminal:
enter "su" to get root powers
"fdisk -l" to see all the available partitions
"mount" to see what is mounted
cd /mnt; ls
OR
cd /media; ls
To see what mount points might be already set up
 
Old 09-03-2008, 12:17 PM   #4
SHENGTON
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Thanks guys and I'll try your posts. I'll post back again for other questions.
 
Old 09-03-2008, 12:27 PM   #5
SHENGTON
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Sorry I forgot to post this.

These are the partitions that I created before:
The first partition = /
The second partition = /home
The third partition = swap

Does it mean I already access my second partition if I open my Home folder?

Last edited by SHENGTON; 09-03-2008 at 12:31 PM.
 
Old 09-03-2008, 12:29 PM   #6
Nylex
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SHENGTON View Post
Sorry I forgot to post this.

These are the partitions that I created before:
The first partition = /
The second partition = /home
The third partition = swap

Does it mean if I open my Home folder I already access my second partition?
Basically, yes.
 
Old 09-03-2008, 12:41 PM   #7
David the H.
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One aspect of the "everything is a file" idea is that the locations of partitions are fluid and basically transparent to the directory structure. You can have everything on a single partition, or every one of the main subfolders on a different partition, and the file tree would look exactly the same to the system and its users. Indeed, the drives don't even have to be in the same computer; networked drives can be mounted in the same way as physically-connected ones.

And you can move a partition around on the tree as easily as running a new mount command. Of course this can have ramifications if there are important system files on that partition, but if, for example, I have a dedicated drive full of mp3 files on /mnt/multimedia, and I don't like it there, I can move it to /mnt/sharedmp3s instead. Or /media/music, or /home/david/my_music_drive, or nowhere (making the files inaccessible) or even to all of them at once (using the "bind" mount option). The flexibility is mind-boggling compared to the fixed "drive letter" structure of a Windows system.
 
Old 09-03-2008, 12:49 PM   #8
SHENGTON
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Ahh I see. Now I already got it. Thanks guys for the informations that you shared. I really really appreciate that.
 
  


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