[NCLUG] disk drive partition designation

[Brian Wood]

On Friday 01 August 2008 14:34:33 William Greger wrote:
> My PC system is dual-boot (Ubuntu 8.04; XP Pro).
> It contains
> - HD1: ATA 100 controller, primary, master (for Linux)
> - HD2: ATA 100 controller, primary, slave (for Windows)
> - optical drives use the ATA 100 controller, secondary, master/slave
>
> In the Linux directory,
> /dev contains
>        /sda
>        /sda1    # / (root)
>        /sda2    # swap
>        /sda3    # /home
>        /sdb
>        /sdb1    # C:
>        /sdb2
>        /sdb5    # D:
>        /sdb6    # E:
>        /sdb7    # F:
>        /sdb8    # G:
> Why is the  sd..  designation used?  I don't have a SCSI controller!
> The Linux/UNIX documentation I have read refers to  hda, hdb, ...
> as well as  SCSI drives referred to as  sda, sdb, ...
> So I am confused as to what's correct.
> Please explain what's going on.

Some distributions, including Ubuntu, have decided to use the sd(n) 
designation for IDE drives, others have not done so (yet).

Obviously this has caused some confusion, witness your question.

This is due to the switch to the kernel's libata code, originally intended 
just for SATA drives but apparently having been adopted for all IDE drives.

Google around if you want to learn more about this switch.

beww