RE: installation question
Assuming that you have IDE or EIDE disks; The first physical drive
(master) on you IDE or first EIDE controller is Linux device "/dev/hda";
The second drive (slave) is then "/dev/hdb". For EIDE the first drive
on the secondary controller is "/dev/hdc" EVEN if only one drive is on
the first controller (and a second drive would be "/dev/hdd").
Drives are "partitioned" and this is true even if only one partition
exists. The first partition on a drive, to Linux, is ALWAYS "/dev/hdx1"
(where the x is "a", "b", "c", or "d" depending upon which drive you are
dealing with). The second "primary" partition then is "/dev/hdx2", etc.
Now then, under DOS, Windoz, OS/2 (and probably some others), the
partitions are designated with a letter ("A", "B", "C", "D", "E", etc).
Unfortunately, THERE IS NOT NECESSARILY A "ONE TO ONE" CORRESPONDANCE
between the DOS/Windoz/OS2 designations and the Linux designations!!
If, for example you happen to have three "primary" partitions on your
first drive, then the "active" partition is "A:" but could be
"/dev/hda1", "/dev/hda2" or "/dev/hda3" depending upon whether the
first, second, or third "physical" partition is the one that is active.
In this example to DOS, Windoz, and OS2 the other two partitions would
be "invisable".
One of the four possible "primary" partitions can be an "extended"
partition which will act as a "container" for "logical" partitions.
Again, to Linux, the extended partition will have a device designation
(/dev/hdx4). Under the other systems it will not.
The drive "D:" designation could be a logical partition on the first
disk drive (which again remember would be in an extended partition so it
could be the 3rd, 4th or 5th partition on that drive) or it could be a
"primary" partition on a second physical hard disk drive (EVEN if you
have logical partitions on the first drive - they would then have
"higher" leters than "D").
Fortunately, for us, the Linux partitioning software, fdisk, or cfdisk
(sfdisk?) is very good at properly identifying all of the drives and
partitions but a careful examination of what these programs tell you as
well as a close look at what your existing configuration seems to be is
in order before changing anything.
If you currently have a single hard drive partitioned with one "primary"
partition (containing DOS, DOS/Windoz, Windoz95, or OS2), and and
extended partition containing one logical partition then "C" is the
"primary" partition and would be "/dev/hda1" in Linux; the extended
partition has no DOS equivalence but would be "/dev/hda4" in Linux; the
logical partition would be "D:" in DOS and "/dev/hda5" in Linux (Linux
reserves the /dev/hdx2, /dev/hdx3 for the other two primary partitions
that could exist)..
best,
-bill
> I am intalling Debian for the first time. Is there a place during
> intallation telling which disk to choose in intalll Debian? I want
> to intall Debian in disk D but I am afraid of losing the old win95
> data on disk C. Before I am sure about this, I don't dare to
> proceed. Anyone cares to give me a hint? Appreciate.
>
> -H.He
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