Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 10:50:12 +0000 From: Alex Zbyslaw <xfb52@dial.pipex.com> To: "Jeff D. Hamann" <jeff.hamann@forestinformatics.com> Cc: freebsd-questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: can't mount msdos fs on freebsd6? Message-ID: <439FF8E4.6050901@dial.pipex.com> In-Reply-To: <002201c60010$507f13e0$0a00a8c0@rodan> References: <004701c60007$dc095cd0$0a00a8c0@rodan> <439F0434.5090002@dial.pipex.com> <002201c60010$507f13e0$0a00a8c0@rodan>
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Jeff D. Hamann wrote: > sorry, partial newbie here... > > mothra# fdisk -s /dev/ad0 > > yields, > > /dev/ad0: 193821 cyl 16 hd 63 sec > Part start size type flags > 1: 63 61432497 0x07 0x00 > 2: 61432560 61448625 0x0f 0x00 > 3: 122881185 72485280 0xa5 0x80 > > I also made my partition using partition magic 7.0. Should I have mad > ethe partition using xp? > > does this have anything to do with the fact that the parition is an > extended partition? Try mounting it as /dev/ad0s5 and see if that works. Making things with PM is fine. But it being an extended partition certainly makes a difference. If these are the only three partitions on your disk then making one extended seems a waste of time. The point of extended partitions, AFAIK, is that you can put more partitions inside one, thus extending the the limit from 4. If all you have is 3 then you just don't need one to be extended. (Of course, I can't see what else you may have inside that extended partition, so if you have more in there then you may well need one to be extended. Without more info, I cannot say). I have no idea why PM always defaults to trying to make a new partition as extended. In FreeBSD, the first extended partition is 5, the next 6 etc. And that is counted in the order they were *made* (that's my experience to date) and *not* the order that you can see them in PM, for example. Note, however, that many standard FreeBSD tools (fdisk, sysinstall) don't deal with logical partitions inside extended partitions. I don't believe you could boot from one for example, nor use sysinstall to newfs one for you. For FAT32 or NTFS using one should be fine -- I have FAT32s inside extended partitions with no problems. Btw, in Unix-land(*), DOS/fdisk partitions are called "slices". And inside a slice you make your Unix partitions (s3a for / etc). Yes, this is a pain, but Unix had partitions when DOS was a piece of crud which only had floppies. Unfortunately, some genius decided to pinch the term for the way DOS/windows divided up a hard disk; Microsoft went on to rule the world, and now confusion reigns and getting there first counts for nothing :-( --Alex (*) Linux is different and does treat it's partitions as the same as DOS/fdisk partitions, which must make multiple installations a real pain in the behind. It also explains why most Linux installations are /boot, / and one monolithic partitions for everything else. But we all know that Linux is not Unix :-)
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