Disk Management and File System in Linux

Table of Contents

1. TODO File System

1.1. Naming of Hardware Devices

Hardware device File name
   
IDE device /dev/hd[a-d]
SCSI, SATA, USB /dev/sd[a-z]
Virtio device /dev/vd[a-z]
Soft driver /dev/fd[0-1]
Printer /dev/lp[0-15]
DVD /dev/cdrom
Mouse /dev/mouse
Tape machine /dev/st0 or /dev/ht0

The order a-z is not determined by slots, but the order recognised by kernel, although usually, slot order is equal to kernel recognition order.

Partition is indicated by numbers following filename. 1-4 means main partition or extended partition, and 5+ means logical partition. For example, /dev/sda5 tells us: /dev/ stores information about hardware device, sd tells it’s a storage device, a tells it’s the first device to be detected, 5 tells this device is a logical partition.

Date: 2026-05-30 Sat 00:00