FreeBSD6 Unleashed

Chapter 20. Adding Hard Disk Storage

IN THIS CHAPTER

• IDE/ATA Access Modes

• SCSI Disks

• Understanding Hard Disk Geometry

• Partitioning a Hard Disk

• Creating the Disk Labels

• Making the Filesystem Available for Use

• Enhancing Disk Performance Using RAID and Vinum

This chapter tries to make sense of what is surely one of the ugliest parts of dealing with a UNIX system: disks. Compared to a Windows system (where a disk is automatically assigned a drive number by the BIOS) or a Macintosh (where a new disk simply appears on the desktop), UNIX systems require a deeper knowledge of geometry, partitions, access modes, and other such esoterica. FreeBSD is, unfortunately, no exception.

As you learned in Chapter 12, “The FreeBSD Filesystem,” the hierarchical filesystem ...