This chapter provides general guidelines for managing removable media in the Solaris environment.
This is a list of the overview information in this chapter.
Use these references to find step-by-step instructions for managing removable media.
Removable Media Management Task |
For More Information |
---|---|
Access removable media | |
Format removable media | |
Write data and music CDs |
For information on using removable media with File Manager in the Common Desktop Environment, see Solaris Common Desktop Environment: User’s Guide.
The Solaris environment gives users and software developers a standard interface for dealing with removable media. Referred to as volume management, this interface provides three major benefits:
By automatically mounting removable media, it simplifies their use. (For a comparison between manual and automatic mounting, see the following section.)
It enables you to access removable media without having to become superuser.
It allows you to give other systems on the network automatic access to any removable media on your local system. For more information, see Chapter 2, Accessing Removable Media (Tasks).
The following table compares the steps involved in manual mounting (without volume management) and automatic mounting (with volume management) of removable media.
Table 1–1 Comparison of Manual and Automatic Mounting
Steps |
Manual Mounting |
Automatic Mounting |
---|---|---|
1 |
Insert media. |
Insert media. |
2 |
Become superuser. |
For diskettes, use the volcheck command. |
3 |
Determine the location of the media device. |
Volume manager (vold) automatically performs many of the tasks previously required to manually mount and work with removable media. |
4 |
Create a mount point. |
|
5 |
Make sure you are not in the mount point directory. |
|
6 |
Mount the device using the proper mount options. |
|
7 |
Exit the superuser account. |
|
8 |
Work with files on media. |
Work with files on media. |
9 |
Become superuser. |
|
10 |
Unmount the media device. |
|
11 |
Eject media. |
Eject media. |
12 |
Exit the superuser account. |
Essentially, volume management enables you to access removable media just as manual mounting does, but more easily and without the need for superuser access. To make removable media easier to work with, you can mount removable media in easy-to-remember locations.
Table 1–2 How to Access Data on Removable Media Managed by Volume Manager
Access |
Insert |
Find the Files Here |
---|---|---|
Files on the first diskette |
The diskette and enter volcheck |
/floppy |
Files on the first removable hard disk |
The removable hard disk and enter volcheck |
/rmdisk/jaz0 or /rmdisk/zip0 |
Files on the first CD |
The CD and wait for a few seconds |
/cdrom/volume-name |
Files on the first DVD |
The DVD and wait for a few seconds |
/dvd/volume-name |
Files on the first PCMCIA |
The PCMCIA and wait for a few seconds |
/pcmem/pcmem0 |
If your system has more than one type of removable device, see the following table for their access points.
Table 1–3 Where to Access Removable Media
Media Device |
Access File Systems With This Path |
Access Raw Data With This Path |
---|---|---|
First diskette drive |
/floppy/floppy0 |
/vol/dev/aliases/floppy0 |
Second diskette drive |
/floppy/floppy1 |
/vol/dev/aliases/floppy1 |
First CD-ROM drive |
/cdrom/cdrom0 |
/vol/dev/aliases/cdrom0 |
Second CD-ROM drive |
/cdrom/cdrom1 |
/vol/dev/aliases/cdrom1 |
First removable hard disk |
/rmdisk/jaz0 /rmdisk/zip0 |
/vol/dev/aliases/jaz0 /vol/dev/aliases/zip0 |
First PCMCIA drive |
/pcmem/pcmem0 |
/vol/dev/aliases/pcmem0 |