This material is based on work supported by the

National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0802551

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of
the author (s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation C2L4S1
In this lesson, you will be exploring disk management and
learning how to add, remove, and arrange storage devices in a
Linux system.

To show your competence in Linux administration and on job

interviews, you need a thorough understanding of hard drive
management. Topics such as partitioning a hard drive, basic file
system principles, creating and managing devices, boot sector
Ucompetence.
principles ,and RAID are all basic requirements for the
The experienced administrator will need to show practical
expertise in these topics while the potential new employee will
need to show a basic understanding in order to get his/her foot
in the door!

Take your time to explore this lesson and be sure to do your own
research and contact your instructor if you encounter difficulties
or need further explanations.

C2L4S2
Student Expectations

You should know what will be expected of you when

you complete this lesson. These expectations are
presented as objectives.

Objectives are short statements of expectations that

tell you what you must be able to do, perform, learn,
or adjust after reviewing the lesson.

C2L4S3
Objective

Given a Linux system students should be able

to create and maintain a Linux partition as per
industry standards.

C2L4S4
 In this lesson, you will Additional Needs:
explore:
To complete this lesson, you will
• Boot sector recovery also need:

• Filesystem upkeep • Gparted

• Device creation • D*mn Small Linux

• File quotas Use the links above to download

• Permission & owners both applications to your Linux
system. Use the information
• RAID provided in this lesson to install
these apps when required.

C2L4S5
To understand disk management, there are some essential
concepts you must understand including:

• Boot sector Select PLAY below to view

 The boot sector is the part of the hard drive that contains an introductory video.
the instructions to load the operating system from disk.
• Master boot record
 The first 512 bytes of the hard drive (first sector) that View Video
contain the instructions for loading the operating system VideoLesson4Introduction(C2
• Volume boot record L4S14).mp4
 The sector on a volume drive that contains the
instructions for loading an operating system

Required Reading:
• PC Guide
• Master boot record
• Fixing your MBR with Ubuntu

C2L4S6
The following concepts are also important:

• File System
Select PLAY below to view
 In a computer, a file system (sometimes written an introductory video.
filesystem) is the way in which files are named and where
they are placed logically for storage and retrieval on a
View Video
hard disk. VideoLesson4Introducti
• File Maintenance on2(C2L4S15).mp4
 In Linux, there is very little file system maintenance that
needs to be performed. Most versions of Linux have a
defrag application, but it is rarely required because the
operating system and file system work together to
Required Reading:
prevent fragmentation. • File systems
• File Quotas • File systems in Linux
 The maximum amount of space allocated for a user, • Filesystem tour
folder, or file. Quotas are normally created to protect the • Understanding Unix
operating and file system from being filled with data • File quota howto
which may result in loss of computer services or • Disk quotas in Linux
functionality. • Configuring quotas

C2L4S7
 Select PLAY below to view
tw0 videos on partitioning.
Physical drives in a system may be arranged in various
ways:
View Video
VideoLesson4Partitioning
• Partition Part 1
(C2L2S16V1).mp4
 To divide memory or mass storage in to sections so it can
be used for storing data. A device such as a hard drive will
need to have a new partition table setup before the hard
drive can be used. View Video
Part 2
VideoLesson4Partitioning
• RAID 2(C2L2S16V2).mp4
 Short for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. RAID is a
hard disk technology which can be used to speed up data Required Reading:
transfer and/or provide disk redundancy. • Linux partitioning
 RAID is normally used in a server or production • Primer on partitioning
environment. However, recent drops in the prices of RAID • Partitioning your drive
technology have encouraged home users to implement • How to partition
RAID structuring to protect their data . • Raid Standards
• Raid in Action
• Raid levels explained

C2L4S8
• GParted
 A popular, GUI driven Linux application used to
partition hardware devices.
• Linux SWAP file
 A Linux SWAP can be either a file or actual partition Select PLAY below to
view a video on Gparted.
that is set aside to use as virtual memory.

View Video
Required Reading: VideoLesson4Gparted(C2L4S17).mp4
• Download Gparted
• Tutorial on Gparted
• Information for Gparted

C2L4S9
C2L4S10
 Select PLAY below to
DSL is a small Linux flavor that runs on just about view videos on DSL.
anything. The creator decided to see how small he View Video
could make a functional operating system using VideoLesson4Downloa
Linux Debian. dDsl(C2L4S19V1).mp4 Download DSL

Most people run DSL from a Live CD to test their

hardware and network functionality. It is a great
troubleshooting tool and should be part of any IT
View Video
Technicians’ toolbox.
VideoLesson4DSLVirtu Virtual box for DSL
albox(C2L4S19V2).mp4
This portion of the lesson will introduce you to
DSL and explain how to set up a Virtual Machine
using DSL. You will also learn to add applications View Video
to DSL and fine-tune its performance. VideoLesson4Running
DSL(C2L4S19V3).mp4 Running DSL

C2L4S11
In this lesson, you explored file system management
in Linux. You learned to prepare a drive for use, and
how to use partitions to separate a physical drive into
multiple drives. You also explored important areas of
a hard drive that contain instructions used to load the
operating system including boot sectors, master boot
records, and volume boot records.

Additionally, you learned to implement RAID

technology in which two or more drives are combined
to store data in various configurations.

Finally, you used Gparted software to partition hard

drives, and you learned to use DSL—a small Linux-
based operating system that runs on machines with
minimal hardware horsepower.

C2L4S12