Where is the NOOBS 512 MB Data Partition?

[ssg]

I've just built my new Raspberry Pi 2 using NOOBS v1.5. I chose the Raspbian and 512MB Data Partition options. Now I want to reinstall Raspbian without losing some text files I've created. Where is the data partition?

[Navyscourge]

It should show up using the GUI File Manager - from the menu bar select View, then Side Pane then Places, or select Places from the 'button' below the Menu Bar that is a selection between Places or Directory Tree

There are more complicated things about mounting partitions - do you want to know about these?

[ssg]

Thanks for the reply. I've looked but I don't really know what I'm looking for.

There are more complicated things about mounting partitions - do you want to know about these?

Yes, please. I'm a Windows IT Pro (and reasonably technically competent) but with virtually no knowledge of *nix, apart from what I can remember from Uni, [cough-cough] years ago. I've ordered the Debian book recommended in one of the beginner stickies, here, but that's a week away, and I have time to play atm.

I know (read think) you can mount partitions to appear as directories in the file system. I'm happy with the command line (I use PowerShell for everything in Windows) so if it's easier to show me using that, feel free.

[Navyscourge]

I hope you can understand then...

Try reading this: https://github.com/raspberrypi/noobs/wi ... -explained

Note that the partitions shown there are not necessarily what you have; it depends on what you chose when installing with NOOBS, so that example does not show the data partition

On your Pi, open a terminal window from the top menu bar. Type:

Code: Select all

sudo fdisk -l

the last letter is an 'el'. It should show the partitions on your card, mine is (no data partition):

Code: Select all

Device         Boot    Start      End  Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1          8192   287109   278918 136.2M  e W95 FAT16 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2        294912 30638079 30343168  14.5G 85 Linux extended
/dev/mmcblk0p3      30638080 30703615    65536    32M 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p5        303104   425983   122880    60M  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p6        434176 30638079 30203904  14.4G 83 Linux

You should be able to work out which partition is your data partition by comparing your output with mine, and checking with the link above. Your data partition should also show a size of 512M.

In the terminal window, check your mounted partitions with

Code: Select all

mount | grep /dev/mmc

Note the vertical line after 'mount'; the output from the mount command has been filtered to only show SD card partitions. If you still cannot see your data partition in that list mount it manually (it should be mounted automatically, perhaps you unmounted sometime without realising it?)

Code: Select all

sudo mkdir /media/pi/data
sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0pX /media/pi/data

...replace 'X' with your partition number. It should now show up in the GUI file manager

[ssg]

Thanks for the reply and the link. I'd almost forgotten about MBRs - everything I've used has been virtualized for years, first through RAID and later through VMware/Hyper-V and SANs.

The NOOBS partitioning docs were particulary useful but I think https://github.com/raspberrypi/noobs/wi ... -explained needs updating. On my newly-built v1.5 machine, it looks like this:

Code: Select all

Device         Boot    Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1          8192  2357421  2349230  1.1G  e W95 FAT16 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2       2357422 15523839 13166418  6.3G 85 Linux extended
/dev/mmcblk0p5       2359296  2424829    65534   32M 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p6       2424832  2553855   129024   63M  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p7       2555904 14467069 11911166  5.7G 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p8      14467072 15515647  1048576  512M 83 Linux

If I'm reading that correctly, Settings is now inside the extended partition as Op5 rather than at the end of the disk as a primary partition Op3.

[beta-tester]

Thanks for the reply and the link. I'd almost forgotten about MBRs - everything I've used has been virtualized for years, first through RAID and later through VMware/Hyper-V and SANs.

The NOOBS partitioning docs were particulary useful but I think https://github.com/raspberrypi/noobs/wi ... -explained needs updating. On my newly-built v1.5 machine, it looks like this:

Code: Select all

Device         Boot    Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1          8192  2357421  2349230  1.1G  e W95 FAT16 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2       2357422 15523839 13166418  6.3G 85 Linux extended
/dev/mmcblk0p5       2359296  2424829    65534   32M 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p6       2424832  2553855   129024   63M  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p7       2555904 14467069 11911166  5.7G 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p8      14467072 15515647  1048576  512M 83 Linux

If I'm reading that correctly, Settings is now inside the extended partition as Op5 rather than at the end of the disk as a primary partition Op3.

in your case, /dev/mmcblk0p8 is the Data partition you are looking for (with its 512MByte).
yes, the official public available documentation is always "way" behind of the reality
(if the developer are not payed for and no quality management exists and nobody donate thier time, then the documentation will be out of sync quickly)

on NOOBS 1.5, its layout is like this:
/dev/mmcblk0p1 is the boot partition of noobs it self,
/dev/mmcblk0p2 is the "space reservation" of the extended/logical partitions
/dev/mmcblk0p3 and /dev/mmcblk0p4 are not used, because there is no space left for additional primary partitions and there is also no need for. (in NOOBS 1.4.x and older, the partition layout looks slightly different.)

/dev/mmcblk0p5 is in case of NOOBS 1.5 the data-/configuration-/setup- partition of NOOBS, there is stored what OS is installed on which partitions and some other data. in NOOBS 1.4.x and older, the partition layout looks slightly different.

/dev/mmcblk0p6 is the boot partition of the first installed OS (mounted as /boot),
/dev/mmcblk0p7 is the root partition of the first installed OS (mounted as /, with /etc/, /home/ and all others),
(in case there are more than one OS installed:
/dev/mmcblk0p8 is the boot of the 2'nd installed OS
/dev/mmcblk0p9 is the root of the 2'nd installed OS
/dev/mmcblk0p10 is the boot of the 3'rd installed OS
/dev/mmcblk0p11 is the root of the 3'rd installed OS
...)
followed by the optional data partition,
/dev/mmcblk0p8 is the data partition (if you installed one in NOOBS)

BE WARNED!
NOOBS destroys ALL partitions first, creates all partitions newly, format all partitions and installs the OS'es to its partitions.
that means, even if you select a single OS to reinstall, NOOBS wipes out ALL data from ALL partitions.
so you have to make a backup of all data from all partitions first by hand, before you start to reinstall anything by using NOOBS.

i don't know, if the developer will change that behavior in the future, but for now, you have to backup if you don't want to loose your data.