Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 14:27:28 -0700 From: garys@opusnet.com (Gary W. Swearingen) To: Nikolas Britton <nikolas.britton@gmail.com> Cc: "Gary W. Swearingen" <garys@opusnet.com>, FreeBSD - Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Using a hard drive without partitions Message-ID: <icu0ic7znj.0ic@mail.opusnet.com> In-Reply-To: <ef10de9a050730105851978a63@mail.gmail.com> (Nikolas Britton's message of "Sat, 30 Jul 2005 12:58:24 -0500") References: <ef10de9a050730012642c200b6@mail.gmail.com> <4kbr4k9x6z.r4k@mail.opusnet.com> <ef10de9a050730105851978a63@mail.gmail.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Nikolas Britton <nikolas.britton@gmail.com> writes: > But in FreeBSD your disk needs a slice otherwise it's not compatable > with fdisk / bsdlabel / growfs... I think. One of the main reasons for using a DD disk is so you don't have to mess with those things; they are of no use on a DD disk (assuming that you cover the whole disk with the file system). You haven't said how you plan to use this disk. If you're going to use it for raw data, you don't need disk labels or file systems or anything, you just write (eg, >) and read (eg, <) from it, or tell your custom driver about it. Do you want to mount it for files? >> You've got a standard partition table with the s1 entry in use, which >> is not "dangerous". The FAQ has an entry on DD disks. > > But it is "dangerous" because it starts at sector 0. I've read that > FAQ as well as greg's book, Lucas's book, unix power tools, the man > pages, handbook, etc. I will reread them again. WHAT is dangerous? Yes, a DD disk is (more) dangerous, but you don't have a DD disk. Your s1 doesn't start at sector 0 and so it isn't considered dangerous. Your s1 probably starts at the 64th sector. And I'll take a guess that your "newfs /dev/ad0s1" (if it works at all) is starting the new filesystem at least 16 sectors further on, after the disk label area (which it probably assumes is there). The newfs manpage says that the disk must first be labeled. > I'm going to be working on this server today and I'll post some of the > details of fdisk, bsdlabel, etc. to see if I can help clarify things. Yeah, I'd like to see your "bsdlabel ad0s1"; I'm wondering if you have a disk label with "c" when you think you have no disk label. Can you mount /dev/ad0s1c? Can you mount dev/ad0s1? Seems to me you'd either want to be safe and use "ad0s1a" or live dangerously and use "ad0a" or even "ad0" if it seems to work.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?icu0ic7znj.0ic>