Media access with mount and fstab

MOUNT UP

Article from Issue 68/2006
Author(s):

This month we look at tools for mounting and unmounting storage media.

The penguin does not use Windows-style drive letters – instead, Linux attaches media directly to the directory tree in a process known as mounting, which is performed either at boot time or using manual commands. There’s a place for everything in the Linux filesystem tree; device files for devices of all kinds, such as network devices, removable media, or hard disk partitions, can typically be found below the /dev (for "device") directory. Name Game

IDE device names (the names of hard disks, CD-ROM, or DVD drives) start with hd (for "hard disk"); the letter that then follows depends on the connector and the order. Each controller provides two connectors; the first connector is called the master and the second the slave. The device names are: hda (master) and hdb (slave) for the devices attached to the first controller. Devices on the second controller are known as hdc (master) and hdd (slave).

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