Storage Device Management Terms

Notes

• This is 11.5
• Initially a drive usually must go through a low level format.
  • This divides the device into sectors.
    • A header
    • data area
    • trailer
  • Includes sector information
    • Id
    • error detection information
  • Usually done at the factory, but ...
  • There is a trade off with sector size
    • Smaller eliminates problems with bad sectors
    • And more header information (wasted? space)
• Then the OS can take multiple actions
  • Partitions break device into logical sections.
  • These are the basic level at which a drive is associated with the file system.
  • There are /, /home, /swap, /boot partition.
  • This is done via the mount command on Linux
  • The partition table is frequently stored in the Master Boot Record
• Volumes
  • One or more partitions
  • On one or more devices
  • Which is formatted with a file system.
  • Or not.
  • Physical vs Logical volumes
• A file system is the logical formatting of a drive.
  • There are many different file systems in existence.
• Partitions can also be labeled as a boot partition.
  • This contains information for bootstrapping
• Swap space
  • Partitions can be marked for swap as well.
  • The os can manage this space, without all of the overhead of a file system.
  • Linux can also be given a swap file
  • This is an entire topic.