same named of HDD and SSD

[Dexter Smith]

Hope this is the right place to post!! Is there a way to access a secondary drive that is named the same as the first? mint 18.3 – I have 2 tb HDD that is named “dev/sda1” I had used previously, and either want to format or rename it so I can use it as storage. My boot 500 ssd is also named “dev/sda1”. Do I have to format the 2 TB HDD or can it be renamed? As you can tell I am exceptionally new to mint and Linux!
Thanks

 

[wizardfromoz]

G'day @Dexter Smith and welcome to linux.org

If you plug the 2TB drive into the unit with the SSD, go to Terminal in your Linux Mint (Ctrl-Alt-t) and type and enter the following (line prefaced by a # is me commenting)

sudo fdisk -l

#that's a lowercase L

and press enter and enter your password.

Copy and paste the output into a Reply here.

If you want, you can use the Spoiler function it is in your Reply Pane toolbar, 4th from right, behind the plus sign in a square.

When pasting, you will see an insertion point blinking between the SPOILER markers.

Here's mine, but don't be daunted by the length, I run a lot of Linux

Spoiler: Wizard's fdisk -l

chris@cindy-beta-wd:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for chris:
Disk /dev/sda: 1.8 TiB, 2000398934016 bytes, 3907029168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xd3a8c71d

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 2048 41945087 41943040 20G 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 41945088 83890175 41945088 20G 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 83890176 125833215 41943040 20G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/sdb: 238.5 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: CF22267C-9B73-4247-9895-301B02AEAD40

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 1333247 1331200 650M EFI System
/dev/sdb2 1333248 1595391 262144 128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sdb3 1595392 190339071 188743680 90G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb4 190339072 191279103 940032 459M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sdb5 191279104 217454591 26175488 12.5G Windows recovery environment
/dev/sdb6 217454592 219691007 2236416 1.1G Windows recovery environment
/dev/sdb7 219691008 261636095 41945088 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb8 261636096 303579135 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb9 303579136 345522175 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb10 345522176 387465215 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb11 498020352 500117503 2097152 1G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb12 387465216 429408255 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb13 429408256 471351295 41943040 20G Linux filesystem

Partition table entries are not in disk order.


Disk /dev/sdc: 3.7 TiB, 4000786153472 bytes, 7814035456 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: B1C26EE7-F08D-4BB2-B4AE-439B9C248A1F

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdc1 2048 83890175 83888128 40G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc2 7812986880 7814033407 1046528 511M EFI System
/dev/sdc3 83890176 125833215 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc4 125833216 964694015 838860800 400G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc5 964694016 1384124415 419430400 200G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc6 1384124416 1468010495 83886080 40G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc7 1468010496 1509953535 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc8 1509953536 1551896575 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc9 1551896576 1593839615 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc10 1593839616 1635782655 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc11 1635782656 1677726015 41943360 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc12 1677727744 1719670783 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc13 1719670784 1761613823 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc14 1761613824 1803556863 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc15 1803556864 1983838207 180281344 86G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc16 1983838208 2025781247 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc17 2025781248 2067724287 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc18 2067724288 2109667327 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc19 2109667328 2151610367 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc20 2151610368 2193553407 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc21 2193553408 2235496447 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc22 7309670400 7812986879 503316480 240G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc23 2235496448 2277439487 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc24 2277439488 2319382527 41943040 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc25 2319382528 2403268607 83886080 40G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc26 2403268608 2445211647 41943040 20G Linux filesystem

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

 

[Dexter Smith]

Wow, Chris thanks for your reply? Before I do this procedure, how would a newbie know which disk he is about to perform this action? I am asking so I can use this procedure in the future. Again thanks for the help!

 

[wizardfromoz]

G'day Dexter, if your Linux Mint is on your "boot 500 ssd", that is where you would perform it from.

Wizard

 

[Dexter Smith]

actually Chris it is on the other drive. Where and what designates the correct drive in the command line you sent?

 

[wizardfromoz]

That's OK, this is an information-generating exercise only, makes no changes.

If Mint is on the 2TB, and you have access to it (to running Mint) just run it from there.

Or am I missing something? (wouldn't be the first, nor last time )

Wiz

 

[Dexter Smith]

I have had some trouble with the drive labeling in Linux. One more lesson. With an SSD main drive and using the other as storage, we installed it on the 2 TB which I wanted to be storage only. To keep from having problems with the combination of drives I simply unplugged the 2 TB and made sure I installed it on the SSD. A normal person would have done the same thing only in reverse specially when Mint 18.3 is on both drives. Sometimes I scare myself.

Thanks so much for your help! I will keep you posted.

Thank you

dx

 

[atanere]

Hi Dexter, sorry to butt in. I think you're confused a bit about your drives both being "named" or "labeled" as /dev/sda1. That is not quite the case. It is happening because you only allow them to be plugged in one-at-a-time. When Linux boots up, it "identifies" the drives that are installed... by a combination of auto-detect and by configuration files like fstab and mtab.

Physical hard drives are typically identifed as sda, sdb, sdc, etc. Partitions are identified with a number after the drive identity, so sda1 is the 1st partition on the 1st hard drive, and sdb3 is the 3rd partition on the 2nd hard drive.

Because you made both of your drives bootable with Linux Mint, you would probably need to use your BIOS Boot Menu to pick which one to boot from if you left them both connected when starting the computer. Your BIOS Boot Menu would also identify the drive, probably by brand name, so you would know which one your booting. Then, when you examine your disk arrangement, you will most likely find that the boot drive is /dev/sda1 as you've seen before, but the other one will be different.... maybe /dev/sdb, but it can also be further down the alphabet (especially if it is an external drive connected by USB).... perhaps as far as /dev/sdf or /dev/sdg.

You can, in fact, assign a drive "label" to each drive (like "STORGE" or "MEDIA" etc). A utility called Gparted can do this, and there are other methods as well. Drive labels are also helpful, but Linux does not usually create them automatically on hard drives. It is more common when creating a bootable Linux USB flash drive that it will have a drive label assigned to it.

So, if you leave both drives connected, and you boot on the SSD.... and you are SURE you booted on the SSD.... then you can use Gparted to erase all of the partitions on the 2TB drive, label it as "STORAGE" if you want, and then format it so that it is clean and ready to use. If this drive will be used in a portable USB enclosure and shared with Windows computers, then you would want to format it as NTFS so both Linux and Windows can use it. Windows cannot use the various Linux file systems (and FAT32 is too old and outdated to use on a large drive like that).

Cheers

 

[Dexter Smith]

Gosh, don’t worry about butting in. I need all the help I can get! I am just thankful there are those willing to help. I was/am a little hesitant to post because of my skill level.

Thank you guys,

dx

 

[wizardfromoz]

WIZARD'S GLOSSARY

GParted - the GNOME Partition Editor, very useful, very powerful. Ships with many Linux Distributions (Distros), but if not, can be installed easily.

Stan - aka @atanere - bears a resemblance to a well-loved cartoon character, wants to be in that position after he retires next June 26. Is supposed to be on a Sabbatical of sorts currently, but is having withdrawal symptoms, so may butt in from time to time.

What Stan has described at #8 above is why I asked for the output of that fdisk command. It would show us at a glance how you are setup, including how your formatting and filetypes is/are.

If GParted is not in your install at the moment (& I don't think it is - go to Menu and start to type in "gparted" without the quotes), you can install it from Terminal with the command

sudo apt-get -y install gparted

But see if you can get me that fdisk output before you make any changes to the external drive.

I was/am a little hesitant to post because of my skill level.

No need - The Wizard was a novice as recently as 5 years ago, on Linux, and a book on my mistakes would rival The Bible in size. We have all walked in your path, some more recently than others.

Cheers

Wizard