HDD partitioning question...

[Derek Ragona]

At 03:27 PM 4/14/2008, Dharma Wolford wrote:
>Hi folks,
>
>(I'm a relative newcomer to all this... thanks for your patience & help.)
>
>I've installed FreeBSD 6.2 on a system that will be primarily used as an FTP
>server.  It has 2 drives - one for the OS and the other for the FTP
>storage.  My question is about the storage drive in this case.
>
>You can see how I have things partitioned right now:
>#################################
>[root at mybox /var/log]# mount
>/dev/da0s1a on / (ufs, local)
>devfs on /dev (devfs, local)
>/dev/da0s1d on /tmp (ufs, local, soft-updates)
>/dev/da0s1f on /usr (ufs, local, soft-updates)
>/dev/da0s1e on /var (ufs, local, soft-updates)
>/dev/da1 on /usr/home (ufs, local, soft-updates)
>[root at mybox /var/log]#
>#################################
>
>I started by trying to use fdisk to partition the storage drive (/dev/da1)
>but was getting errors which I don't exactly recall - something about a
>problem with the 'block device'.
>Anyway, then I wound up using the command "newfs -O 2 /dev/da1"  which
>seemed to work and I was then able to mount and use the drive.
>
>My question is:  is there anything wrong with having "/dev/da1"  mounted an
>in-use?  Should I have created a partition like "/dev/da1s1a" or something?
>I seem to remember somebody once chiding me for having formatted or mounted
>the 'block device' itself instead of a partition... is this making any sense
>to anyone?  Clearly I need to know more about *NIX file systems (slices,
>partitions, block devices) and best practices or some such - I am working on
>it but obviously have a ways to go!
>
>Thanks very much!
>
>dharma

Sounds like the drive geometry was off or you may have a drive with 
issues.  You should have been able to create a partition with a single 
slice on it.  I would check the drive with diagnostics from the 
manufacturer.  Those utilities will also allow you to know the correct 
geometry.

         -Derek

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