Installation guide

In Figure 25.13, “Disk Drive with Final Partition Configuration”, 1 represents before and 2 rep-
resents after.
Note
The following information is specific to x86-based computers only.
As a convenience to our customers, we provide the parted utility. This is a freely available pro-
gram that can resize partitions.
If you decide to repartition your hard drive with parted, it is important that you be familiar with
disk storage and that you perform a backup of your computer data. You should make two cop-
ies of all the important data on your computer. These copies should be to removable media
(such as tape, CD-ROM, or diskettes), and you should make sure they are readable before pro-
ceeding.
Should you decide to use parted, be aware that after parted runs you are left with two partitions:
the one you resized, and the one parted created out of the newly freed space. If your goal is to
use that space to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you should delete the newly created parti-
tion, either by using the partitioning utility under your current operating system or while setting
up partitions during installation.
1.5. Partition Naming Scheme
Linux refers to disk partitions using a combination of letters and numbers which may be confus-
ing, particularly if you are used to the "C drive" way of referring to hard disks and their partitions.
In the DOS/Windows world, partitions are named using the following method:
• Each partition's type is checked to determine if it can be read by DOS/Windows.
• If the partition's type is compatible, it is assigned a "drive letter." The drive letters start with a
"C" and move on to the following letters, depending on the number of partitions to be
labeled.
• The drive letter can then be used to refer to that partition as well as the file system contained
on that partition.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses a naming scheme that is more flexible and conveys more inform-
ation than the approach used by other operating systems. The naming scheme is file-based,
with file names in the form of /dev/xxyN.
Here is how to decipher the partition naming scheme:
/dev/
This is the name of the directory in which all device files reside. Since partitions reside on
hard disks, and hard disks are devices, the files representing all possible partitions reside in
/dev/.
1.5. Partition Naming Scheme
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