Not sure I completely understand partitions

[jhsu]

I get the feeling there's something important about partitions that I'm missing, but I don't know what it is.

I'd like to see what the partitions are on your computers and what you have in each one. Seeing a variety of examples will help me understand things better.

Please go into command line, go to cfdisk, and copy-and-paste your partions and post them in your reply. And note what you have in hda1, hda2, etc.

[gdemonta]

here you 've got what gparte gives me. It's more grafiacl, so easier to understand...

[jhsu]

OK, I understand what the swap drive is for, but why is it located in the middle of the drive rather than the end?

I see hda3 is in fat32 format. Is this for Windows, or is this a Puppy Linux partition?

What do the lock icons for hda1 and hda2 mean?

With these partitions, what do you do when it's time to upgrade to a new version of Puppy Linux?

[gdemonta]

but why is it located in the middle of the drive rather than the end?

It doesn't really matter!

I see hda3 is in fat32 format. Is this for Windows, or is this a Puppy Linux partition?

It contains my datas (music, photos,...). The fat32 format is used because it can be read by both linux and windows, so if you network puppy with a windows computer, you read and write in this partition.

What do the lock icons for hda1 and hda2 mean?

It means that these partition where "mounted" at the time I made this screenshot, i.e. they were "used" at this time. It means if i wanted to delete the partition I could not, I had to unmount them first.

With these partitions, what do you do when it's time to upgrade to a new version of Puppy Linux?

I never updated my puppy, I always re installed it as each new version comes out (a windows user habit!)

hope it helps

[pupshock]

When viewed under Windoze, is
hda1 and hda2 described as "unused/unformatted"?

[Billwho?]

Hi jhsu
Here are the results from two of my computers
Comp1
hda1 Hidden partition containing WinxP install and restore information, is not seen by windows through "my computer"
hda2 Win XP
hda5 Win XP data storage. Also contains pup_save.2fs,, devx_xxx.sfs, pup.swp etc along with any Puppy files I want to be able to access from Windoow$.

Code: Select all

                                   cfdisk 2.12q

                              Disk Drive: /dev/hda
                        Size: 80026361856 bytes, 80.0 GB
              Heads: 255   Sectors per Track: 63   Cylinders: 9729

Name        Flags      Part Type       FS Type                           [Label]             Size (MB)
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hda1                          Primary      Compaq diagnostics                               3150.29 
hda2        Boot         Primary       W95 FAT32 (LBA)                                     8231.11
hda5                          Logical       W95 FAT32                                                38642.37

Comp 2
hda1 Win 98SE
hdb1 DOS 6.22
hdb2 Full install of Puppy Not seen by window$ DOS 6.22 fdisk lists as NON-DOS
hdb5 Data storage for Win 98SE. Also includes any Puppy files that I want to access from window$. DOS 6.22 fdisk lists as NON-DOS

I really need to add a linux swap partition to this drive but have not got around to it yet.

Code: Select all

                                     cfdisk 2.12q

                              Disk Drive: /dev/hda
                        Size: 2564481024 bytes, 2564 MB
              Heads: 128   Sectors per Track: 63   Cylinders: 621

Name        Flags      Part Type          FS Type          [Label]        Size (MB)
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hda1         Boot        Primary            W95 FAT32                         2559.84 
                                   Pri/Log             Free Space                           4.13



                                    cfdisk 2.12q

                              Disk Drive: /dev/hdb
                        Size: 20020396032 bytes, 20.0 GB
              Heads: 255   Sectors per Track: 63   Cylinders: 2434

Name        Flags      Part Type    FS Type              [Label]                   Size (MB)
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hdb1          Boot     Primary      FAT16                  [NO NAME    ]         403.04 
hdb2                        Primary      Linux ext2                                           419.49
hdb5                         Logical      W95 FAT32                                        19181.36
                                  Pri/Log       Free Space                                         16.46