<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <title>Managing your Hard Drive Partitions with DiskDrake</title> <meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.73.2"> <link rel="start" href="index.html" title="Mandriva Linux Installation Guide"> <link rel="up" href="index.html" title="Mandriva Linux Installation Guide"> <link rel="prev" href="formatPartitions.html" title="Choose the Partitions to Format"> <link rel="next" href="choosePackages.html" title="Package Selection"><style xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/transitional" type="text/css"> <!-- body { font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px } table { font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px } --></style></head> <body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"> <div class="section" lang="en"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title"><a name="diskdrake"></a>Managing your Hard Drive Partitions with DiskDrake </h2> </div> </div> </div> <p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa1"></a> <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, or the removable medium of your choice. </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="DiskDrake's Action Buttons">the section called “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="d5e810"></a>The Interface </h3> </div> </div> </div> <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. You can 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 the first hard disk). </p> <p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa6"></a>The window (see <a class="xref" href="diskdrake.html#diskdrake-main" title="Figure 2. DiskDrake's Main Window">Figure 2, “DiskDrake's Main Window”</a>) is divided into four zones: </p> <div class="itemizedlist"> <ul> <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>Right. A menu relevant to the partition currently selected in the above diagram. </p> </li> <li> <p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa9"></a>Left. 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="DiskDrake's Action Buttons">the section called “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>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-te2"></a><span class="guibutton">More</span></span></dt> <dd> <p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa21"></a>Displays a dialog allowing you to reload the partition table, use it to restore the partition table to the state it was in when you started custom partitioning. </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-te6"></a><span class="guibutton">Help</span></span></dt> <dd> <p><a name="BId-diskdrake-pa25"></a>Displays documentation in a browser window. </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 class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;"> <table border="0" summary="Note"> <tr> <td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="images/note.png"></td> <th align="left">Note</th> </tr> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <p>You may not remember the content of existing partitions. Click on <span class="guibutton">View</span>, you will be able to browse content of all your partitions </p> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </div> </div> </body> </html>