Configuring a USB hard disk

USB hard disks look like SCSI hard disks to the kernel. They use the Sdsk device driver and are configured in a similar fashion to SCSI drives. To install and configure a USB hard disk:

1. As root, run shutdown(ADM) to stop the system.

2. Attach the USB hard disk to an available USB port and restart the system, putting it into maintenance mode.

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   NOTE: This is the recommended method for adding USB mass storage devices. You can hot-plug a USB hard drive, but the disk's USB device ID could change when the system is rebooted next, requiring you to modify the drive's configuration. See the usb(HW) manual page for more details.

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3. As root, select Hard Disk from the devices listed by the Hardware/Kernel Manager, or enter the command mkdev hd. (Enter mkdev hd -u or mkdev hd -h if you require detailed usage and help information for mkdev.)

4. All devices (including USB) are detected automatically and displayed by a simple alias name (for example: disk1). Enter the alias of the disk you wish to initialize.

5. Enter 1 ("Create a partition") and follow the prompts.

6. When the partition has been created, enter 4 ("Exit").

7. The divvy(ADM) command is run to create filesystems on the disk

8. If prompted to do so, relink the kernel, then reboot the system. You can defer relinking in you have other devices to configure.

See also:

• the usb(HW) manual page