===================================== PARTITIONS originally the partitions were as follows /dev/sda1 1 125 1004031 5 Extended /dev/sda5 1 16 128457 82 Linux swap /dev/sda6 17 17 8001 83 Linux /dev/sda7 18 18 8001 83 Linux /dev/sda8 19 40 176683+ 83 Linux /dev/sda9 41 124 674698+ 83 Linux /dev/sda10 125 125 8001 83 Linux /dev/sda2 126 121601 975755970 83 Linux partition 2 is user data (and is partitioned XFS, all the rest is EXT3) partition 6 is: u-boot legacy uImage, Linux-2.6.12.6-arm1, Linux/ARM, OS Kernel Image (Not compressed), 1239640 bytes, Wed Apr 9 15:29:19 2008, Load Address: 0x00008000, Entry Point: 0x00008000, Header CRC: 0xEE86CE8C, Data CRC: 0x7D07DE92 partition 10 is all zeros; if a kernel is put there, it will be used instead of partition 6 partition 7 is a minimal linux O.S. that is used at boot, does some unknown stuff, and then pivot_roots to partition 8 partition 8 is the main O.S. , and it mounts some parts of partition 9 as overlays =========== some ideas of the overlays used in the lacie-O.S. is given by those outputs # mount none on /sys type sysfs (rw) none on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw) /dev/sda2 on /home type xfs (rw) /dev/sda9 on /oldroot/snapshots type ext3 (rw) /dev/sda7 on /mnt type ext3 (ro) # cat /proc/mounts rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0 /dev/root /oldroot ext3 ro 0 0 /proc /oldroot/proc proc rw,nodiratime 0 0 /dev/sda8 /oldroot/var/original ext3 ro 0 0 /dev/sda9 /oldroot/snapshots ext3 rw 0 0 unionfs / unionfs rw,dirs=/oldroot/snapshots/snaps/00=rw:/oldroot/var/original=ro,debug=0,delete=all,copyup=preserve 0 0 none /proc proc rw,nodiratime 0 0 none /sys sysfs rw 0 0 none /proc/bus/usb usbfs rw 0 0 /dev/sda9 /var ext3 rw 0 0 /dev/sda9 /tmp ext3 rw 0 0 /dev/sda2 /home xfs rw 0 0 As you see, some of the parts of /dev/sda9 that are mounted on /var and /tmp are 'mount --bind', and come from the same-name-directories inside /oldroot/snapshots/EDMINI Other parts are 'unionfs' overlays of pieces of /dev/sda9 upon the /dev/sda8 filesystem. (Too bad, unionfs is deprecated nowadays!) All this is done in the script /etc/init.d/mountkernfs =========== then I changed the partitions, currently they are Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 1 271 2176776 5 Extended /dev/sdb2 272 121601 974583225 83 Linux /dev/sdb5 1 16 128457 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sdb6 17 17 8001 83 Linux /dev/sdb7 18 18 8001 83 Linux /dev/sdb8 19 40 176683+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb9 41 124 674698+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb10 125 125 8001 83 Linux /dev/sdb11 126 247 979933+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb12 248 271 192748+ 83 Linux partition 11 is my Debian lenny O.S. ==================================== then I changed them again, because I was in need of a large swap space # cfdisk -P s /dev/sda Partition Table for /dev/sda First Last # Type Sector Sector Offset Length Filesystem Type (ID) Flag -- ------- ----------- ----------- ------ ----------- -------------------- ---- 1 Primary 0 10410119 63 10410120 Extended (05) None 5 Logical 63* 257039 63 256977*Linux swap / So (82) None 6 Logical 257040 273104 63 16065 Linux (83) None 7 Logical 273105 289169 63 16065 Linux (83) None 8 Logical 289170 642599 63 353430 Linux (83) None 9 Logical 642600 1992059 63 1349460 Linux (83) None 10 Logical 1992060 2008124 63 16065 Linux (83) None 11 Logical 2008125 3968054 63 1959930 Linux (83) None 12 Logical 3968055 4353614 63 385560 Linux swap / So (82) None 13 Logical 4353615 6506324 63 2152710 Linux (83) None 14 Logical 6506325 10410119 63 3903795 Linux (83) None Pri/Log 10410120 19920599 0 9510480 Free Space None 2 Primary 19920600 1953520064* 0 1933599465 Linux (83) None and eventually # cfdisk -P s /dev/sda Partition Table for /dev/sda First Last # Type Sector Sector Offset Length Filesystem Type (ID) Flag -- ------- ----------- ----------- ------ ----------- -------------------- ---- 1 Primary 0 10410119 63 10410120 Extended (05) None 5 Logical 63* 257039 63 256977*Linux swap / So (82) None 6 Logical 257040 273104 63 16065 Linux (83) None 7 Logical 273105 289169 63 16065 Linux (83) None 8 Logical 289170 642599 63 353430 Linux (83) None 9 Logical 642600 1992059 63 1349460 Linux (83) None 10 Logical 1992060 2008124 63 16065 Linux (83) None 11 Logical 2008125 3968054 63 1959930 Linux (83) None 12 Logical 3968055 3984119 63 16065 Linux (83) None 13 Logical 3984120 6506324 63 2522205 Linux swap / So (82) None 14 Logical 6506325 10410119 63 3903795 Linux (83) None Pri/Log 10410120 19920599 0 9510480 Free Space None 2 Primary 19920600 1953520064* 0 1933599465 Linux (83) None