Mounting a 2nd HDD?

homer_3 · 12-01-2011, 10:54 AM

I'm trying to mount a 2nd sata HDD. Both HDDs are plugged in but an ls /dev only shows sda, sda1, and sda2. From searching around online, it looks like sda is my 1st drive and it's split into 3 partitions. So there should be an sdb for the 2nd drive (or at least an sd(some letter other than a).

Do I have to do something in order for the 2nd drive to show up under /dev?

TobiSGD · 12-01-2011, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homer_3

ls /dev only shows sda, sda1, and sda2. From searching around online, it looks like sda is my 1st drive and it's split into 3 partitions.

No, sda is your first disk and it is split into two partitions, sda1 and sda2.

Quote:

So there should be an sdb for the 2nd drive (or at least an sd(some letter other than a).

Correct, except you use an older kernel and the second drive is attached via an IDE port (instead of a SATA port), then it will show up as /dev/hda.

Quote:

Do I have to do something in order for the 2nd drive to show up under /dev?

Except of connecting it to the motherboard and power supply unit (don't want to mention how often I forgot one of those), no.

malekmustaq · 12-01-2011, 11:55 AM

What does

Quote:

sudo fdisk -l

returns? It should exhibit your second HD in what manner of name. Try that on the terminal. You shall first know what name is used for the second HD then you can mount it to a point.

If it doesn't show try examine the syslog how it synced your device at booting, or grep the dmesg command what error occurred and under what node on (sdb, sdc, etc) is assigns your device (HD). I am not good at commands but this will work, try it:

Be root.

Quote:

grep dev /var/log/syslog

and examine the output if you can see something like 'sdb' or 'sdc' and what happened.

Also try grepping the error message,

Quote:

dmesg | grep disk

then examine the output if there are two disks and under what name it is.

If no hint is given by those means, then you may proceed to reboot enter the BIOS configuration and switch off the RAID then redo above commands to examine the output. Still if none, then your HD is not attached properly, check your connection.

Hope this helps.

homer_3 · 12-01-2011, 02:15 PM

Maybe I have a bad sata port or I need to plug into them in a certain order. I plugged into a different port and now both show up.

wagscat123 · 12-03-2011, 08:17 PM

Make sure you have the BIOS settings for the hard disk set up correctly.

corp769 · 12-03-2011, 08:27 PM

To see what exactly is being done in the background when you plug it in, run the following before you do plug it in:

Code:

tail -f /var/log/messages

Now when you plug your device in, you will see what the system is doing, and what is being assigned to it. From there, you can then manually mount your drive if you have automount disabled.

Cheers,

Josh