Hard disk device name
In Debian Lenny, the disks are named according to rules defined in /etc/udev/rules.d
The default udev rules define the following naming:
If you have IDE Hard disks:
/dev/hda is IDE primary master (equivalent to c: in Windows) /dev/hdb is IDE primary slave (equivalent to d: and so on)
The exception is if you have a CDROM or DVDROMs attached to the first IDE controller, those could be named as /dev/hda.
If your hard disk is attached to a second IDE controller, it will be named /dev/hdc or /dev/hdd as follows:
/dev/hdc is IDE secondary master /dev/hdd is IDE secondary slave
Nowadays, with SATA controllers, the drive may be named as /dev/hde, /dev/hdf etc. Sometimes the IDE disks are /dev/sda (eg SiI RAID capable controller).
If you have SCSI hard disks, Linux names them as /dev/sda, /dev/sdb etc.
You can define udev rules of your own to achieve completely different naming, for example persistent disk names according to disk bay position.
Testing a Harddisk
e2fsprogs (using the badblocks command)