Disk Mount Points

  • Windows and Linux both use mount points to identify their hard disks
  • WINDOWS
    • Mount points are defined by drive letters
      • [ A: ] — usually a floppy drive
      • [ B: ] — a second floppy drive
      • [ C: ] — primary hard drive
      • [ D: ] — CD / DVD drives
      • Other drive letters are available for more attached devices
  • LINUX
    • Linux uses a unified directory tree
    • Each device is mounted on a ‘mount point’ anywhere within the directory tree
    • Mount points have many different sizes depending on their function
    • Common Linux mount points:
      • [ swap ] — twice the size of system RAM — helps the system RAM when a larger program is running
      • [ /home ] — size varies — holds user’s data files
      • [ /boot ] — 500 MiB — holds critical boot files
      • [ /usr ] — size varies — holds most Linux program and data files
      • [ /usr/local ] — size varies — holds Linux program and data files that are unique to an installation.  Usually things that are compiled by a specific user
      • [ /opt ] — size varies — holds Linux program and data files that are associated with third-party packages
      • [ /var ] — size varies — holds miscellaneous files associated with day-to-day functioning of the computer and are transient in nature and usually used for server related files (web or email)
      • [ /tmp ] — size varies — holds temporary files
      • [ /mnt ] — no size — serves as a mount point for removable media
      • [ /media ] — no size — serves as a mount point for removable media
      • [ /etc, /bin, /sbin, /lib, /dev ] — no size — should never be placed on a separate partitions.  These directories have critical system configuration files without which Linux can not function
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