Member Avatar for harish_s

Hi friends,
Can anybody tells, in linux, from where we can get the information of connected device (like Harddisk, Tape Drive etc) in linux machine ??

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A practical, layered approach works best for "what is attached" on Linux: treat controller/port enumeration and block-device/udev views as separate steps. asked for a general place to look; and pointed to controller-level and kernel-level info, and noted desktop tools — those are useful starting points, but storage-specific tools give clearer, non-ambiguous answers about disks, tape drives and SAN targets.

Start with block-device and SCSI-level visibility, then inspect udev properties and SMART/firmware info. Typical quick checks (run as root when needed):

lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL,MOUNTPOINT
blkid
lsscsi
udevadm info --query=property --name=<device>
smartctl -i /dev/<device>

Notes and troubleshooting tips:

  • Hardware RAID or vendor controllers often hide physical disks behind the controller; the OS will show the logical device. Use the vendor management utility for that controller if a physical-disk list is needed.
  • SAN/iSCSI devices and multipath setups may present different names; check multipath status before assuming a missing device is gone.
  • Tape drives show up at the SCSI/tape level; they may not have filesystems but will expose vendor/model/serial properties you can query with SCSI/udev tools.
  • Most utilities above are non-destructive; avoid write/erase flags unless you know the command and target. Many commands require root.

References for the tools and kernel device/sysfs model:

This complements the earlier replies by focusing on block/SCSI/udev workflows and the special cases (RAID, SAN, tape) that commonly confuse simple PCI/USB or kernel-log checks.

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Member Avatar for jbennet

you can use the "lspci" cmmand for cards, dont know about drives

Member Avatar for mjdodd

I use kubuntu to experiment and in /system/advanced (tab on top of window/ youcan go to file or to system etc and then anywhere formthere!
best O L
M

Member Avatar for John A

Hi friends,
Can anybody tells, in linux, from where we can get the information of connected device (like Harddisk, Tape Drive etc) in linux machine ??

Several ways:

- You can find various information about devices and their connected status in /proc . In particular, look at /proc/devices , which lists character and block devices that have been detected.

- dmesg will print out the message buffer of the kernel, which includes detected hardware. Pipe it to 'less' or 'tail' for easier reading.

- lspci and lsusb will provide information about connected PCI and USB devices/controllers, respectively. Note that these commands simply reformat the information found in the /proc filesystem.

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