Drives / Partitions in Linux

[Pindy]

Hi

I am looking at installing Ubuntu onto my PC at home and had a quick question that I couldn't really find an answer to on Google.

When a hard drive or partition is mounted in Linux, what reasoning is behind the labels such as hda and hda1? Is there such thing as hdb? (I think I saw it once when I mounted a USB stick using a Knoppix CD). Can you have the number increase, e.g. hda1, hda2, hda3?

When is sda used?

A simple explanation for a simple person would be great. Thanks.

 

[leezer3]

Right, in a system with 2 IDE HDDs & 2 SATA HDDS (2x Partitons Each) it goes like this:

hda IDE Hard drive 1
hda1 IDE Hard drive 1, partition 1 (C:\)
hda2 IDE Hard drive 1, partition 2 (D:\)

hdb IDE Hard drive 2
hdb1 IDE Hard drive 2, partition 1 (E:\)
hdb2 IDE Hard drive 2, partition 2 (F:\)

sda SATA Hard drive 1
sda1 SATA Hard drive 1, partition 1 (G:\)
sda2 SATA Hard drive 1, partition 2 (H:\)

sdb SATA Hard drive 2
sdb1 SATA Hard drive 2, partition 1 (I:\)
sdb2 SATA Hard drive 2, partition 2 (J:\)

Obviously not quite as complex as that, but I hope it shows whats going on

-Leezer-

 

[fumbles]

hda1 - means first partition of the first IDE hard disk
sdd3 - means third partition of the fourth SATA/SCSI hard disk

So the number is the partition, the last letter is the drive, and the first letter is the connection.

 

[Pindy]

Perfect!