How do I know what is sda, sdb, sdc ?

[Pierrot Lafouine]

Hi
I would like to know what device (disk, usb etc...) is at sda, sdb, etc...
What command can I use to know that ?

Thanks

[zerhacke]

You could use


sudo fdisk /dev/sda

And so on for each disk. It will tell you how big each disk is. If your discs are not the exact same size, you'll know which is which.

[Pierrot Lafouine]

Hi
I tried what the command sudo fdisk, this is the output.

xx@yyy:/dev$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 3882.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help):


It doesn't tell if its a USB or hdd etc... I also tried list, and print, no mention of what is the hardware attached to sdb. How can I know that ?

[unutbu]

Press 'q' to quit fdisk.
Then try


sudo fdisk -l

(Since some fonts make this hard to tell, note that "-l" is a dash followed by a lowercase L.)

[Pierrot Lafouine]

The output :
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 6 1520 da Non-FS data
/dev/sdb2 7 10 1024 da Non-FS data
/dev/sdb3 13 3882 990720 83 Linux

Still no mention of USB / SATA driver etc...

[oldfred]

this will list the drive id

ls -l /dev/disk/by-id

[scorp123]

The output :
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 6 1520 da Non-FS data
/dev/sdb2 7 10 1024 da Non-FS data
/dev/sdb3 13 3882 990720 83 Linux

Still no mention of USB / SATA driver etc... Try this one:


sudo apt-get install procinfo lshw
These are two small but useful utilities that can spit out all sorts of info about your system.

Once they are installed you can do this:

sudo lshw -businfo

This then produces output like this:


> sudo lshw -businfo

Bus info Device Class Description
================================================== ====
system FL379AA-UUZ m9480ch
bus Benicia
memory 64KiB BIOS
cpu@0 processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9400 @ 2.66GHz
memory 128KiB L1 cache
memory 6MiB L2 cache
processor Logical CPU
processor Logical CPU
processor Logical CPU
processor Logical CPU
memory 8GiB System Memory
memory 2GiB DIMM Synchronous 800 MHz (1.2 ns)
memory 2GiB DIMM Synchronous 800 MHz (1.2 ns)
memory 2GiB DIMM Synchronous 800 MHz (1.2 ns)
memory 2GiB DIMM Synchronous 800 MHz (1.2 ns)
cpu@1 processor
processor Logical CPU
processor Logical CPU
processor Logical CPU
processor Logical CPU
cpu@2 processor
processor Logical CPU
processor Logical CPU
processor Logical CPU
processor Logical CPU
cpu@3 processor
processor Logical CPU
processor Logical CPU
processor Logical CPU
processor Logical CPU
pci@0000:00:00.0 bridge 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express DRAM Controller
pci@0000:00:01.0 bridge 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express PCI Express Root Port
pci@0000:05:00.0 display GeForce 9800 GT 512
pci@0000:00:1a.0 bus 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
usb@3 usb3 bus UHCI Host Controller
pci@0000:00:1a.1 bus 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5
usb@4 usb4 bus UHCI Host Controller
pci@0000:00:1a.7 bus 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
usb@1 usb1 bus EHCI Host Controller
usb@1:2 bus USB2.0 Hub
usb@1:2.1 input USB Multimedia Cordless Kit
usb@1:2.2 input USB Keyboard
pci@0000:00:1b.0 multimedia 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
pci@0000:00:1c.0 bridge 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1
pci@0000:04:00.0 wmaster0 network AR5008 Wireless Network Adapter
pci@0000:00:1c.1 bridge 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2
pci@0000:03:00.0 multimedia CX23885 PCI Video and Audio Decoder
pci@0000:00:1c.2 bridge 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 3
pci@0000:02:00.0 eth0 network RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
pci@0000:00:1d.0 bus 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
usb@5 usb5 bus UHCI Host Controller
pci@0000:00:1d.1 bus 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
usb@6 usb6 bus UHCI Host Controller
pci@0000:00:1d.2 bus 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
usb@7 usb7 bus UHCI Host Controller
pci@0000:00:1d.3 bus 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6
usb@8 usb8 bus UHCI Host Controller
usb@8:1 printer deskjet 5600
usb@8:2 multimedia ORITE CCD Webcam(PC370R)
pci@0000:00:1d.7 bus 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
usb@2 usb2 bus EHCI Host Controller
usb@2:2 scsi8 storage U3 Cruzer Micro
scsi@8:0.0.0 /dev/sdi disk 16GB Cruzer
/dev/sdi disk 16GB
/dev/sdi1 volume 14GiB EXT3 volume
scsi@8:0.0.1 /dev/cdrom1 disk Cruzer
/dev/cdrom1 disk
usb@2:5 bus USB2.0 Hub
usb@2:5.1 input Beanbag Emulation Device
usb@2:5.2 scsi7 storage USB2.0-CRW
scsi@7:0.0.0 /dev/sde disk SCSI Disk
scsi@7:0.0.1 /dev/sdf disk SCSI Disk
scsi@7:0.0.2 /dev/sdg disk SCSI Disk
scsi@7:0.0.3 /dev/sdh disk SCSI Disk
pci@0000:00:1e.0 bridge 82801 PCI Bridge
pci@0000:01:00.0 scsi6 storage AIC-7850
pci@0000:01:05.0 bus FW323
pci@0000:00:1f.0 bridge 82801IR (ICH9R) LPC Interface Controller
pci@0000:00:1f.2 scsi0 storage 82801IR/IO/IH (ICH9R/DO/DH) 6 port SATA AHCI Controller
scsi@0:0.0.0 /dev/sda disk 640GB WDC WD6400AAKS-6
scsi@0:0.0.0,1 /dev/sda1 volume 158GiB Windows NTFS volume
scsi@0:0.0.0,2 /dev/sda2 volume 133MiB EXT3 volume
scsi@0:0.0.0,3 /dev/sda3 volume 423GiB Extended partition
volume 1953MiB Linux filesystem partition
/dev/sda6 volume 7812MiB Linux filesystem partition
/dev/sda7 volume 3906MiB Linux filesystem partition
/dev/sda8 volume 7812MiB Linux filesystem partition
/dev/sda9 volume 7812MiB Linux filesystem partition
/dev/sda10 volume 387GiB Linux filesystem partition
/dev/sda11 volume 7844MiB Linux swap / Solaris partition
scsi@0:0.0.0,4 /dev/sda4 volume 13GiB Windows NTFS volume
scsi@1:0.0.0 /dev/cdrom disk BDDVDRW GBC-H20L
scsi@2:0.0.0 /dev/sdb disk 640GB WDC WD6400AAKS-6
scsi@2:0.0.0,1 /dev/sdb1 volume 596GiB Linux filesystem partition
scsi@3:0.0.0 /dev/sdc disk 400GB SAMSUNG HD400LD
scsi@3:0.0.0,1 /dev/sdc1 volume 372GiB Solaris partition
scsi@4:0.0.0 /dev/sdd disk 500GB WDC WD5000AAKB-0
scsi@4:0.0.0,1 volume 465GiB EFI GPT partition
pci@0000:00:1f.3 bus 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller
vboxnet0 network Ethernet interface
pan0 network Ethernet interface


As you can see above, this command will tell you which device is USB (highlighted red above) and which device is SATA (highlighted green above).

Is that what you wanted?

[juanoleso]

Thanks scorp123, i'll remember these.

[Firestem4]

you can use a few different ways(seperating commands with spaces)


sudo fdisk -l

cat /proc/partitions

cat /proc/mounts

df -ah

mount -l

sudo parted -l


Linux/UNIX identifies devices more universally by use of a UUID which technically speaking helps avoid confusion since each UUID is "Universally Unique"

[oldfred]

I was just reading another post and louie showed this command.

sudo smartctl --all /dev/sda

[Pierrot Lafouine]

Thanks,
It works.