Arch partition is scary

[Jza]

Ok there I said it, after nuking my data partition I have to admit that not only it is scary but confusing. The way arch guide u through the porocess of partitioning is a piain in the neck and a hassard. IT almost sound as if they did it on porpouse.

Ok thats my rant, and the reason is simple, why will they put partitions by the name of the system.

/dev/disk0/part1
/dev/disk0/part2
/dev/disk0/part3
/dev/disk0/part5
/dev/disk0/part6
/dev/disk0/part7
/dev/disk0/part8

Ok if this is not confusing then what is. I mean this process is after you arleady wrote a patition table isnt it that hard to show u the actual filesystem.

The confusing part with the list before is that there is only 5 partitions so where did this 8 come from. I would agree that there might be some hidden partitions but for god sake put at least the filesystem or the sixze of the disk.

Ok you can tell I just lost data.

[snarkout]

If you have anything using devfs like that on your system, it's likely you're using an old version of the arch install disk. The latest image uses udev by default.

[Gomer_X]

The confusing part with the list before is that there is only 5 partitions so where did this 8 come from. I would agree that there might be some hidden partitions but for god sake put at least the filesystem or the sixze of the disk.

A partition table can hold 4 primary partitions (1-4). To get more than 4 partitions you need an extended partition, which can then be divided into logical partitions (numbered 5-8 ).

So you have

Code: Select all

part1
part2
part3 (extended)
       /--------
       |  part5
       |  part6
       |  part7
       |  part8
       \--------

So you have 6 actual partitions. Partition 1 or 2 is probably swap, with the final 5 being actual data partitions.

[Jza]

But why it shows 8 when I just have 5 partitions through the whole HD (including swap)/

[Gomer_X]

Read what I wrote again. Partition 3 holds partitions 5-8. You actually have 6 partitions.

1
2
5
6
7
8

That's 6. Note that there is no partition 4, and partition 3 isn't a data partition. Why you have 6 when you think there are only 5 I don't know.

Use fdisk, and have a look around. Your /etc/fstab should also give clues.