Linux drive letters?

[captpete]

What does the Linux OS use in place of drive letters?

[captpete]

Thanks for the reply. Would a directory be considered a file in Linux?

[linux_guru]

Under Linux/Unix, everything is a file. Your parallel port (/dev/lp0), serial (/dev/ttyS0), etc. Yes directories are files.

As for hard disks, they are /dev/hda - /dev/hdd (IDE) and /dev/sda - /dev/sdz (SCSI). The partitions on them are numbered /dev/hda1, hda2, hda3, etc. These partitions are mounted at special directories called mount-points. There is no concept of "drive letters" as the Windows world uses.

So, you can link together any number of partititions, from as many disks as you have, and present them all as one directory structure. Not a single drive letter in sight. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by linux_guru (edited 06-24-2001).]

[captpete]

Thanks, linux_guru.
That is precisely the info I needed.

[pbharris]

hello,
There is not really any corresponding item to call a drive letter. Everything is at the directroy / and all "drives" are accessed by switching to directories, e.g. /mnt/cdrom would be where the CD rom is at, which might be called D:\ in dos/windows based systems. To see which drives or partitions are available (i.e. mounted) you cna type df in a terminal which tells amount of disk free space or open kde or gnome file managers and browse around.