[WYLUG-help] "lost" hdd

[Dave Fisher]

On Sun, Jan 29, 2006 at 07:25:08PM +0000, Mike Goodman wrote:
> Thanks once again, Dave. I now have a course of action I can pursue. In
> case it's any consolation, the LVM filesystem is there because the FC4
> installer put it there and not because of some misguided plan dreamt up
> by me.
> 
> I asked:
> > Should I start by using fdisk to partition hdb? If so, what partion(s)
> > should I create?
> 
> By this I meant should I partition hdb as ext3 which is how Sarge's
> installer partitions by default, to which the answer would appear to be
> yes. 

Just to clarify. When you say 'partition hdb as ext3' I think you
probably mean '_format_ hdb as ext3', i.e. organise the storage and
recording of data and changes on the disk according to ext3 conventions
(as opposed to Reiser, FAT or XFS conventions, for example).

The term _partitioning_ refers to the division of the entire hard disk
space into sections, i.e. writing a tiny 'partition table' onto the disk
which tells the computer BIOS and/or the operating system the locations
on the disk where each partion begins and ends. N.B.  You can partition
a disk without actually formatting any of the individual partitions in
any way.

In this instance your installer would. first, define a single partition
(called /dev/hdb1) which occupies all of the space on /dev/hdb.  The the
installer would organise data blocks within that partition according to
ext2/ext3 conventions.


> And should I have a swap file in there, to which the answer would
> appear to be no.

Again, being somewhat pedantic, I think you mean 'swap partition' rather
than swap file.  

I'm not sure of the situation with current filesystems and disk
hardware, but historically, dedicated swap partitions performed much
better than swap _files_ (i.e. files stored on a normal filesystem).

Actually, there is a performance case for having 2 swap partitions (one
on each disk), but given your unfamiliarity with /etc/fstab I didn't
think it wise to recommend the slightly trickier configuration required
to use a second swap partition efficiently.

If you wanted to maximise your future options, you could always 'waste'
1GB by creating a swap partition (/dev/hdb2) of that size on /dev/hdb
now, then optimise its use later, when you've understood how /etc/fstab
works.  

In particular, you probably need to know about how to correctly set swap
priorities in /etc/fstab in order to maximise performance.

Dave