puppy gets confused numbering partitions

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lostdog
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Joined: Wed 05 Oct 2005, 16:56

puppy gets confused numbering partitions

#1 Post by lostdog »

I have a large hard drive with four partitions(spelling?) and puppy numbers them hda1 then skips to hda5. hda5 is actually hda2. why does this happen? I get the same thing in Simply Mepis. :?
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bugman

#2 Post by bugman »

I'm no expert re partitioning; mine do the same. I believe it's due to how primary and logical pertitions are numbered. I've got hdb1 (primary ext2) and hdb5 (logical swap). So maybe the primary partitions get the first 4 numbers and the logical ones get the higher numbers? As long as it all works, I'm happy...

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Yaverot
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#3 Post by Yaverot »

okay are:
hda1 (C: in windows)
hda2 (an extended partition that holds hda5+, not visible in windows)
hda5 (D: in windows, logical partition)
hda6 (E: in windows, logical partition)
hda7 (F: in windows, logical partition)
hda8 (G: in windows, logical partition)

hda1-4 are reserved for primary partitions, a primary partition can be maked extended and that allows it to hold logical partitions.
Windows prefers only 1 primary and upto 1 extended partition, so most partitioning programs format that way to maintain compatibility.

(Above where I said windows, I mean MS OSes from DOS3 to WinME, I am not certain if NT/2K/XP handles primary partitions differently).
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jmarsden
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Re: puppy gets confused numbering partitions

#4 Post by jmarsden »

lostdog wrote:I have a large hard drive with four partitions(spelling?) and puppy numbers them hda1 then skips to hda5. hda5 is actually hda2. why does this happen? I get the same thing in Simply Mepis. :?
This is because the type of the second entry in your partition table is set to 5, which means it is an "extended" partition. The Linux convention is to make the primary partitions 1 to 4, and logical partitions within the extended partition start at 5 and go up from there.

This is not Puppy (or Mepis) being confused, it is you who is confused :-)

If you need further information, one source is the fdisk man page, online at http://www.die.net/doc/linux/man/man8/fdisk.8.html . It says in part:
fdisk man page wrote:A DOS type partition table can describe an unlimited number of partitions. In sector 0 there is room for the description of 4 partitions (called `primary'). One of these may be an extended partition; this is a box holding logical partitions, with descriptors found in a linked list of sectors, each preceding the corresponding logical partitions. The four primary partitions, present or not, get numbers 1-4. Logical partitions start numbering from 5.
Hope this helps,

Jonathan

lostdog
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#5 Post by lostdog »

This is not Puppy (or Mepis) being confused, it is you who is confused
Yup. That is quite possible. I'm still learning about this stuff. I'll have to do some more reading on the subject. :?

Yaverot I don't have windows. I bought an old dell deminsion just to put linux on so I could learn.

bugman yes as long as it works, it's fine, It just confuses me, and I'm confused enough as it is. :)
The truth is out there.

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rarsa
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#6 Post by rarsa »

Just to confuse you more... errr... to clarify any further confussion ;)

The partition numbers don't even need to be secuential based on the physical location in the disk.

This is, partition 7 could be in sectors 10000 to 20000 and partition 8 in sectors 5000 to 9999. This is, you could have the partition 8 before the partition 7.
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lostdog
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#7 Post by lostdog »

Thanks rarsa. As if I wasn't confused enough. :)

When I trry to put other distros on my hard drive, I can't figure out where I'm putting them.

Well, I may get it figured out, or not. But I'm still having fun.
The truth is out there.

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