[rockballad]

Hi all,

I have a computer with two hard disk (40+230 GB). The first disk have Fedora 5 installed. I used some partition tools, trying to split the second HD, but no success so far. Here is what I see by QTParted (running on FC5):

+ /dev/sda
- sda1: type=ext3, status=active, capacity=101MB, used=20MB
- sda2: type=unknown, status= (empty), capacity=37GB, used=N/A
+ /dev/sdb
- sdb1: type=unknown, status=active, capacity=230GB, used=N/A

I have my data saved on /mydata when I boot in as Fedora OS. It's about 50GB. So I don't know where my data is saved, which partition? My intention is to create a new partition, (split from existing ones), to move data to there, and reinstall the Fedora. Please tell me how to do that. Thank you in advance

[saikee]

Download latest version of Gparted or Parted Magic. It is better to run either one as a Live CD instead of using Fedora.

You can split a Sata into 15 partitions. For a Pata the limit is 63 partitions.

[MCole]

Originally Posted by saikee

You can split a Sata into 15 partitions. For a Pata the limit is 63 partitions.

saikee,
how can a PATA drive get more partitions than a SATA drive?

[saikee]

That is how Linux has been set up.

I think both Sata and Pata are allowed 256 raw devices each.

Pata achieves it with 4 IDE channels, namely hda, hdb, hdc and hdd, each 64 devices. A Pata say hda has 63 partitions plus itself make up the 64 devices.

Sata belongs to the SCSI family which can have 16 disks. Linux also assigns external USB disks for this family. 16x16=256 because the 15 partition plus the whole disk make up the 16 devices for each disk.

You will find Linux remarkably logical. If you have a 63-partition Pata working perfectly as an internal disk, remove it and plug to a USB port none of the 63 partitions can be read. Linux see it as a sda disk (SCSI/Sata/USB disk) and cannot understand why it has partitions more than permitted and will refuse to touch it unless being ask format the whole disk, thereby making it legal again.

The same disk, with 63 partitions, will work perfectly again if hooked back as an internal Pata disk.

[rockballad]

I ever used PartedMagic LiveCD, but it didn't recognize the disk correctly (I guess that because it shows the wrong disk used space). So confused now

[saikee]

I got the feeling that you may not know what you have got or are using a LVM.

You claimed in Post #1 that you have /mydata of 50Gb but the same post reports only two partitions, sda1 and sda2, both are smaller than 50Gb.

I know Fedora is trying very hard to sell everybody the LVM which is a software combining all the disk space together to make available to Fedora. I don't use the damn thing as it gives more trouble than benefit in the era where we could use RAID.

If you are using a LVM then you need to de-couple the disks first to revert the partitions back to the normal way. I can't advise on LVM but I know many Linux software do not support it and no boot loader can boot it.

[rockballad]

Hello saikee,

I'm sure of using LVM because when I search for update software with "LVM" keyword, it's already available. Moreover, I can select System menu -> Administration -> Logical Volume Management. Is it right?

As I said, PartedMagic didn't recognize correctly the disks, so it didn't know how much space is used, and my data is about 100GB in fact.

I don't like the idea combining every disk into one of LVM.

I also don't know if we can de-couple the disks. How about uninstalling LVM?

[saikee]

I am unsure how it is done in LVM but I did see users got into a lot of trouble in doing simple things in LVM.

You need a Linux user experienced in LVM to advise how to uninstall it.

I am not sure if LVM is supported by Parted Magic or gparted but every Linux needs a driver loaded before a LVM is recognised. Like I mentioned earlier many software in Linux will have a problem with LVM, especially those do partitioning.

[rockballad]

Thanks for your advice, saikee! I'll study about LVM for more. Have a nice day!

Cheers,