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#21205 - 27/10/2000 07:12 1st/2nd harddisc partitioning
smu
old hand

Registered: 30/07/2000
Posts: 879
Loc: Germany (Ruhrgebiet)
Hi.

Though my empeg is currently in for a repair, I just read a few old posts on empeg general, and came up with the following question:
I know the update program (part) might do something with the partition table of the first harddisc. However, I think that whatever it does canīt be that much, because:

  1. /dev/hda2 may not be tampered with, as it may contain 3rd party programs.
    This might be a minor point, as someone from empeg (rob?) said something like: The place for 3rd party software is on the music partition

  2. the music partition may not be tampered with, except if previously backed up by the update program

So what exactly might the update program do to the partition table? It might not move/resize the music partition without risking/accepting a loss of data, nor might it move/resize the "3rd party" partition for the same reason. So what exactly does it do? simply overwrite with the (disc size dependent) default values?
Now for the 2nd harddisc, as far as I understood the whole thing, the update program does not tamper its partition table, right? So when I install a second harddisc (thus voiding warranty), would it be sufficient to mimic the first hdīs partition table to the point where the same partition exist or do they have to be the same size (except for the music partition which I guess is just filling up the space the other partitions left over). Or is it even sufficient to just make sure the music partition exists, having the same number (5?) as the one on the primary hd (ie. /dev/hdb5 if the music partition on the first HD id /dev/hda5)? If the same partitions have to exist (no matter if they need to be the same size), could 3rd party software use its aequivalent of the scratch partition?

cu,
sven
(MkII 12GB blue, #080000113)

Edited by smu on 27/10/00 03:27 PM.

_________________________
proud owner of MkII 40GB & MkIIa 60GB both lit by God and HiJacked by Lord

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#21206 - 27/10/2000 12:31 Re: 1st/2nd harddisc partitioning [Re: smu]
mtempsch
pooh-bah

Registered: 02/06/2000
Posts: 1996
Loc: Gothenburg, Sweden
In reply to:

Or is it even sufficient to just make sure the music
partition exists, having the same number (5?) as the one on
the primary hd (ie. /dev/hdb5 if the music partition on the
first HD id /dev/hda5)? If the same partitions have to exist
(no matter if they need to be the same size), could 3rd
party software use its aequivalent of the scratch partition?


No need to replicate the partitions, I only have one partition
on my second disk, the music partition, /dev/hdc4, see below.
/dev/hdc is for a MkI, IIRC MkII uses /dev/hdb.

About what might be touched in the partition table - no
idea, but I think I recall empeg saying that the table on
the second disk would never be touched - someone please
correct me if I'm wrong here!

So as long as you have hd[bc]4 for the music you should be free to use other partitions as you wish...

-----
empeg:/empeg/bin# fdisk /dev/hdc

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 35152.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/hdc: 16 heads, 63 sectors, 35152 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdc4 1 35152 17716576+ 83 Linux

Command (m for help): q

empeg:/empeg/bin#


_________________________
/Michael

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#21207 - 27/10/2000 13:27 Re: 1st/2nd harddisc partitioning [Re: mtempsch]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
I think I recall empeg saying that the table on the second disk would never be touched - someone please correct me if I'm wrong here!

It is true that the .upgrade files won't touch the second disk drive's partition tables at all. However, there is something to consider.

If the drive ever gets moved to another empeg unit, or if you shift it from being the secondary drive to the primary drive on your current unit, then you need to be concerned if you've modified its partition tables.

I was forced into this situation when my primary hard disk (4gb) failed and I had to boot from the secondary hard disk (6gb) instead. This actually worked out really well because the second hard disk already had a bootable version of the Empeg software on it (from when I first installed it- see the FAQ on this for details). All I had to do was swap it into place and the Empeg worked again (albeit with fewer songs).

All in all, my understanding is that it's probably slightly dangerous to muck with the partition tables because the .upgrade files assume the partitions are all in specific places.

___________
Tony Fabris
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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