[mythtv-users] How to add an additional disk drive to Myth

[Blues Guy]

--- John F DeLuca <mythtv at johnfdeluca.com> wrote:
> First of all, I want to thank everyone behind Myth
> as it is an awesome 
> product and has some incredible support.  I am 99%
> there (have tried a 
> couple dists but am currently trying to get Jarod's
> Fedora Core process 
> completed.
> 
> I have Myth/Fedora Core 1 running on an Athlon XP
> 1800+ with 1.5GB Ram. 
> Currently it is installed on a 32GB drive. 
> Obviously, I want to increase 
> the size.  I think the best course is to add my
> 120GB drive to the 
> secondary IDE Channel.  I've done that and booted. 
> Keeping in mind I am a 
> newbie to Linux, I'm trying to:
> 
> 1.  Have Fedora/Myth see the new drive
> 2.  Use the new 120GB drive just to store my
> recordings/buffer
> 3.  Keep the 32GB drive for Linux/Fedora install
> 
> I think separating the OS from the recordings is the
> best course of 
> action....am I right?
> 

Easier is a subjective term, but it is cleaner.  I use
the default /mnt/store location for all my recordings.

> So now my real question.  What do I need to do for
> Linux and Myth to 
> see/use the new drive for live buffer and
> recordings?
> 
> I've googled a bit and now know LVM is my friend. 
> Before I embark and 
> make stupid newbie mistakes, is there a course of
> action I should follow? 
> Is there a benefit to having the 120 GB as
> hdb,hdc.or hdd?  I have my 32 
> GB on hda.  I also have a CD/RW and DVD/RW which
> will likely be in the 
> machine but want to determine the best config (e.g.,
> 32GB on hda.....CD/RW 
> on hdb......120GB on hdc......DVD/RW on hdd).
> 

Unless you force them otherwise, with IDE the drives
will show up in the order they are on the chain.
Primary master=hda, primary slave=hdb, secondary
master=hdc, and secondary slave=hdd.  In general, for
best performance you should have your hard drives on
one controller, and the CD/DVD's on the other.  So
you'd want the new drive to be the primary slave.  You
don't need to use LVM for a setup this simple unless
you really want to.

> Here's what I was thinking of doing (32GB already
> has Linux/Myth installed 
> and is hda.  120GB is the new disk and is hdd)
> 1.  Initialize the disk:  # pvcreate /dev/hdd (or
> hdx where x is the 
> suggested location for the 120GB drive) 
> 2,  Create the volume group:  # vgcreate
> my_volume_group /dev/hdd1 
> /dev/hdd1  (any idea what the volume group name
> should be or can it my 
> anything?)
> 3.  Activate the volume group:  # vgchange -a y
> my_volume_group
> 

Do you really want LVM?  I would simply mount the new
drive at /mnt/store and use the setup options in myth
to store stuff there.

This is really somewhat off topic for this list, as
I'm sure there's a howto at tldp.org that covers this,
but what the heck... After installing the drive, boot
up, use fdisk to create a partition "fdisk /dev/hdb"
(or whatever entry applies to the new drive the way
you hooked it up).  Be careful with fdisk, if you're
not sure what you're doing you can blow away your
entire drive.  i.e. Make sure you get the /dev entry
correct.  After creating the partition, mkfs on
/dev/hdb.  I use ext3, but a lot of people swear by
xfs, and if you're using Axel's RPMS, they'll support
it.  man mkfs for options.  There's some hints on
options in the myth docs as well.  Then mount the
drive (man mount), and put it in /etc/fstab so that it
mounts at startup.  That's it.





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