<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>1. Managing your Hard Drive Partitions with DiskDrake</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="images/mdk-doc.css" type="text/css">
<meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.73.2">
<link rel="start" href="index.html" title="Mastering Mandriva Linux">
<link rel="up" href="mcc-localdisks.html" title="Chapter 13. Local Disks">
<link rel="prev" href="mcc-localdisks.html" title="Chapter 13. Local Disks">
<link rel="next" href="diskdrake-removable.html" title="2. Managing Removable Devices">
</head>
<body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF">
<div class="navheader">
<table width="100%" summary="Navigation header">
<tr>
<th colspan="3" align="center">1. Managing your Hard Drive
Partitions with DiskDrake
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="mcc-localdisks.html">Prev</a>
</td>
<th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 13. Local Disks</th>
<td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="diskdrake-removable.html">Next</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
<hr>
</div>
<div class="section" lang="en">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="diskdrake"></a>1. Managing your Hard Drive
Partitions with DiskDrake
</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa1"></a><span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src="images/diskdrake-icon.png"></span> <a class="indexterm" name="BIdNEW-diskdrake-it5"></a> <a class="indexterm" name="BId-diskdrake-it1"></a> Partitions are initially set up during the installation
process. <span class="application">DiskDrake</span> allows you, to some extent, to
resize your partitions, move them, etc. <span class="application">DiskDrake</span>
can also deal with <acronym class="acronym">RAID</acronym> devices and supports
<acronym class="acronym">LVM</acronym> but we will not discuss these advanced uses
here.
</p>
<div class="warning" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<table border="0" summary="Warning">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Warning]" src="images/warning.png"></td>
<th align="left">Warning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top">
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa2"></a><span class="application">DiskDrake</span> is very
powerful and can therefore be a dangerous tool. Misuse could very easily
lead to data loss on your hard drive. Because of this potential loss of
data, you are strongly advised to take some protective measures before
using <span class="application">DiskDrake</span>:
</p>
<div class="orderedlist">
<ol type="1">
<li>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa3"></a>Back up your data.
Transfer it to another computer,
<acronym class="acronym">DVD</acronym>/<acronym class="acronym">CD</acronym>, etc.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa4"></a><a class="indexterm" name="BId-diskdrake-it2"></a> Save your current partition table (the table describing
how your disks are organized) to a floppy disk (see <a class="xref" href="diskdrake.html#diskdrake-actions" title="1.2. DiskDrake's action buttons">Section 1.2, “DiskDrake's action buttons”</a>).
</p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" lang="en">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title"><a name="d5e8406"></a>1.1. The Interface
</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="figure"><a name="diskdrake-main"></a><p class="title"><b>Figure 13.1. DiskDrake's Main Window</b></p>
<div class="figure-contents">
<div class="mediaobject" align="center"><img src="images/diskdrake-main.png" align="middle" alt="DiskDrake's Main Window"></div>
</div>
</div><br class="figure-break">
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa5"></a><a class="indexterm" name="BId-diskdrake-it3"></a> <span class="application">DiskDrake</span> enables you to manage
partitions on each physical hard drive on your machine, and also on
removable drives: <acronym class="acronym">USB</acronym> hard disks, keys, memory cards,
etc. Below the file-system types you see as many tabs as hard drives your
system has. Each tab is named after the <span class="application">Linux</span>
name for that drive (for example: <span class="guilabel">sda</span> for a
<acronym class="acronym">SCSI</acronym> or a <acronym class="acronym">SATA</acronym> hard disk).
</p>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa6"></a>The window (see <a class="xref" href="diskdrake.html#diskdrake-main" title="Figure 13.1. DiskDrake's Main Window">Figure 13.1, “DiskDrake's Main Window”</a>) is divided into four zones:
</p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<ul type="disc">
<li>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa7"></a>Top. The structure of
your hard drive. When you launch <span class="application">DiskDrake</span>
it will display the current structure of the drive. The display is
updated as you make changes.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa8"></a>Left. A menu relevant to the
partition currently selected in the above diagram.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa9"></a>Right. A description of the selected
partition.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa10"></a>Bottom. Buttons for
executing general actions. See <a class="xref" href="diskdrake.html#diskdrake-actions" title="1.2. DiskDrake's action buttons">Section 1.2, “DiskDrake's action buttons”</a>.
</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa19"></a>We will now review the actions available
through the buttons at the bottom of the window<span><a name="BIdNEW-diskdrake-ph1"></a>, and then describe a practical use
case</span>.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section" lang="en">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title"><a name="diskdrake-actions"></a>1.2. DiskDrake's action buttons
</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="variablelist">
<dl>
<dt><span class="term"><a name="BId-diskdrake-te1"></a><span class="guibutton">Clear
all</span></span></dt>
<dd>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa20"></a>Clicking on this button will clear
all partitions on the current hard drive.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><a name="BId-diskdrake-te6"></a><span class="guibutton">Help</span></span></dt>
<dd>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa25"></a>Display this documentation in a
browser window.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><a name="BId-diskdrake-te8"></a><span class="guibutton">Toggle to expert
mode</span></span></dt>
<dd>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa27"></a>This button allows you to access
the expert mode functions (which are even <span class="emphasis"><em>more</em></span>
dangerous if you are not sure what you are doing). Reserved for
experts.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><a name="BId-diskdrake-te9"></a><span class="guibutton">Done</span></span></dt>
<dd>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa28"></a>Saves your changes and exits
<span class="application">DiskDrake</span>.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" lang="en">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h3 class="title"><a name="diskdrake-example"></a>1.3. Resizing an Old Partition
and Creating a New One
</h3>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa11"></a>We are now going to do a
little exercise to demonstrate one of the more useful features of
<span class="application">DiskDrake</span>. Let us imagine that you decide to
use your machine as an <acronym class="acronym">FTP</acronym> server and you want to
create a separate <code class="filename"><a name="diskdrake-var-ftp1"></a>/var/ftp</code> partition in order to host
the <acronym class="acronym">FTP</acronym> files. <span class="emphasis"><em>Note that doing this
step-by-step tutorial will actually modify the structure of your hard
drive.</em></span></p>
<div class="procedure">
<ol type="1">
<li>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa13"></a>Reboot the machine and
choose <span class="guimenu">Menu</span> → <span class="guimenuitem">Console Login</span> (or press the <span class="keycap"><strong>Ctrl</strong></span>+<span class="keycap"><strong>N</strong></span> keys) at the login screen.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="BIdNEW-diskdrake-pa30"></a>Login as
<code class="literal">root</code> and run the command: <strong class="userinput"><code>xinit -e
diskdrake</code></strong></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa12"></a>This is what the current
<code class="filename">/home</code> partition looks like before modification.
We are going to shrink this partition in order to create free space
for the new file system.
</p>
<div class="mediaobject" align="center"><img src="images/diskdrake-main.png" align="middle"></div>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa14"></a>First of all, you need to unmount
the <code class="filename">/home</code> partition by clicking on it and then
pressing the <span class="guibutton">Unmount</span> button.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa15"></a>The next step, as you may have
guessed, is to click on the <span class="guibutton">Resize</span> button. A
dialog appears which allows you to choose the new size for the
<code class="filename">/home</code> partition. Move the slider to reflect the
new size, then click on <span class="guibutton">OK</span>.
</p>
<div class="mediaobject" align="center"><img src="images/diskdrake-use2.png" align="middle"></div>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa16"></a>When this is done, you
will notice that the graphic representation of your hard drive has
changed. The <code class="filename">/home</code> partition is smaller, and an
empty space appears on the right. Click on the empty space and then on
the <span class="guibutton">Create</span> button which appears. A dialog will
let you choose the parameters for the new partition. Set the size,
choose the file system you want to use (usually <code class="literal">Journalized
FS: ext3</code>) and then enter the mount point for the partition,
which in our example will be <code class="filename"><a name="diskdrake-var-ftp3"></a>/var/ftp</code>.
</p>
<div class="mediaobject" align="center"><img src="images/diskdrake-use3.png" align="middle"></div>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa17"></a>This is how our
projected partition table now looks like.
</p>
<div class="mediaobject" align="center"><img src="images/diskdrake-use4.png" align="middle"></div>
</li>
<li>
<p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa18"></a><a class="indexterm" name="BId-diskdrake-it4"></a> The last step is to format (prepare to host files) the
newly created partition. To format the partition, click on its
representation in the partitions picture, then on the
<span class="guibutton">Format</span> button. Confirm the writing of the
partition table to disk, the formatting of the partition and the
update to the <code class="filename">/etc/fstab</code> file. You may be asked
to reboot the computer to make changes effective.
</p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="navfooter">
<hr>
<table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer">
<tr>
<td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="mcc-localdisks.html">Prev</a>
</td>
<td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="mcc-localdisks.html">Up</a></td>
<td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="diskdrake-removable.html">Next</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Chapter 13. Local Disks </td>
<td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td>
<td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> 2. Managing Removable
Devices
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</body>
</html>
distrib
>
Mandriva
>
2008.1
>
x86_64
>
media
>
main-release
>
by-pkgid
>
275bc5f884d593fea8c87799d871d7f1
>
files
>
37
