Well, there's not been much progress, neither with my ability to charm my esata into life, neither with my ability to charm the LinuxQuestions community into life. Still, I shall endure!!!

The good news is with the estata card the drive gets reckognised at boot and the terabite of available disk space is reported.

There is something funny. If I run lshal there are two devices associated with /dev/hdd

storage.model = 'SONY CD-RW/DVD-ROM CRX310EE' (string)
volume.label = 'LaCie_Storage' (string)

I tried editing fstab, commenting out the dvdrom and letting the lacie be associated with hdd. I then ran mount -a and attempted a mount of the lacie device, but strangely it was the dvd device which mounted.

udevmonitor provides zero output when plugging/unplugging the esata cable and lsmod provides

dell-1 /media # lsmod|grep ata
ata_piix 8452 0
libata 47768 1 ata_piix

I think the absence of the lacie when I run fdisk -l is a clue. Then again perhaps this happens because the external drive and the dvd drive are sharing /dev/hdd. Perhaps someone with experience might like to contribute. I am sure other newbies could find this thread useful.

Just for the record lshal gives the following for the lacie drive and for the dvd drive. Notice both contain the line "block.device = '/dev/hdd' (string)"

udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_label_LaCie_Storage'
volume.unmount.valid_options = {'lazy'} (string list)
volume.mount.valid_options = {'ro', 'sync', 'dirsync', 'noatime', 'nodiratime', 'noexec', 'quiet', 'remount', 'exec', 'utf8', 'uid=', 'mode=', 'iocharset='} (string list)
org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.method_execpaths = {'hal-storage-mount', 'hal-storage-unmount', 'hal-storage-eject'} (string list)
org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.method_argnames = {'mount_point fstype extra_options', 'extra_options', 'extra_options'} (string list)
org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.method_signatures = {'ssas', 'as', 'as'} (string list)
org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.method_names = {'Mount', 'Unmount', 'Eject'} (string list)
info.interfaces = {'org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume'} (string list)
volume.ignore = false (bool)
info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_label_LaCie_Storage' (string)
info.product = 'LaCie_Storage' (string)
volume.disc.capacity = 682561536 (0x28af1000) (uint64)
volume.disc.is_svcd = false (bool)
volume.disc.is_vcd = false (bool)
volume.disc.is_videodvd = false (bool)
volume.disc.is_rewritable = false (bool)
volume.disc.is_appendable = false (bool)
volume.disc.is_blank = false (bool)
volume.disc.has_data = true (bool)
volume.disc.has_audio = false (bool)
volume.disc.type = 'cd_rom' (string)
volume.size = 682561536 (0x28af1000) (uint64)
volume.num_blocks = 1333128 (0x145788) (int)
volume.block_size = 2048 (0x800) (int)
info.capabilities = {'volume.disc', 'volume', 'block'} (string list)
info.category = 'volume' (string)
volume.is_partition = false (bool)
volume.is_disc = true (bool)
volume.linux.is_device_mapper = false (bool)
volume.is_mounted_read_only = false (bool)
volume.is_mounted = false (bool)
volume.mount_point = '' (string)
volume.label = 'LaCie_Storage' (string)
volume.uuid = '' (string)
volume.fsversion = 'Joliet Extension' (string)
volume.fsusage = 'filesystem' (string)
volume.fstype = 'iso9660' (string)
storage.model = '' (string)
block.storage_device = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_2005120800032572' (string)
block.is_volume = true (bool)
block.minor = 64 (0x40) (int)
block.major = 22 (0x16) (int)
block.device = '/dev/hdd' (string)
linux.hotplug_type = 3 (0x3) (int)
info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_2005120800032572' (string)
linux.sysfs_path_device = '/sys/block/hdd/fakevolume' (string)
linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/block/hdd/fakevolume' (string)





udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_2005120800032572'
org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Storage.method_execpaths = {'hal-storage-eject', 'hal-storage-closetray'} (string list)
org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Storage.method_argnames = {'extra_options', 'extra_options'} (string list)
org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Storage.method_signatures = {'as', 'as'} (string list)
org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Storage.method_names = {'Eject', 'CloseTray'} (string list)
info.interfaces = {'org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Storage', 'org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Storage'} (string list)
info.addons = {'hald-addon-storage'} (string list)
block.storage_device = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_2005120800032572' (string)
info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_2005120800032572' (string)
storage.removable.media_size = 682561536 (0x28af1000) (uint64)
storage.cdrom.write_speeds = {'8467'} (string list)
storage.cdrom.write_speed = 8467 (0x2113) (int)
storage.cdrom.read_speed = 8467 (0x2113) (int)
storage.cdrom.support_media_changed = true (bool)
storage.cdrom.hddvdrw = false (bool)
storage.cdrom.hddvdr = false (bool)
storage.cdrom.hddvd = false (bool)
storage.cdrom.bdre = false (bool)
storage.cdrom.bdr = false (bool)
storage.cdrom.bd = false (bool)
storage.cdrom.dvdplusrdl = false (bool)
storage.cdrom.dvdplusrwdl = false (bool)
storage.cdrom.dvdplusrw = false (bool)
storage.cdrom.dvdplusr = false (bool)
storage.cdrom.dvdram = false (bool)
storage.cdrom.dvdrw = false (bool)
storage.cdrom.dvdr = false (bool)
storage.cdrom.dvd = true (bool)
storage.cdrom.cdrw = true (bool)
storage.cdrom.cdr = true (bool)
storage.requires_eject = true (bool)
storage.hotpluggable = false (bool)
info.capabilities = {'storage', 'block', 'storage.cdrom'} (string list)
info.category = 'storage' (string)
info.product = 'SONY CD-RW/DVD-ROM CRX310EE' (string)
storage.size = 0 (0x0) (uint64)
storage.removable = true (bool)
storage.removable.media_available = true (bool)
storage.physical_device = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_8086_24db_ide_1_1' (string)
storage.firmware_version = 'SDK3' (string)
storage.serial = '2005120800032572' (string)
storage.vendor = '' (string)
storage.model = 'SONY CD-RW/DVD-ROM CRX310EE' (string)
storage.drive_type = 'cdrom' (string)
storage.automount_enabled_hint = true (bool)
storage.media_check_enabled = true (bool)
storage.no_partitions_hint = true (bool)
storage.bus = 'ide' (string)
block.is_volume = false (bool)
block.minor = 64 (0x40) (int)
block.major = 22 (0x16) (int)
block.device = '/dev/hdd' (string)
linux.hotplug_type = 3 (0x3) (int)
info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_8086_24db_ide_1_1' (string)
linux.sysfs_path_device = '/sys/block/hdd' (string)
linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/block/hdd' (string)

The relevent lines in dsmesg appear to be

hdd: SONY CD-RW/DVD-ROM CRX310EE, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: version 1.05
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.2[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 209
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.2 to 64
ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xFE00 ctl 0xFE12 bmdma 0xFEA0 irq 209
ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xFE20 ctl 0xFE32 bmdma 0xFEA8 irq 209
ata1: SATA port has no device.
scsi2 : ata_piix
ata2: SATA port has no device.
scsi3 : ata_piix
usb 3-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2

Arrrgggghhhh!!!!!

I have a good idea what is going on here now. After reading this http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10807 I discoverred that the LaCie eSata PCI card and the LaCie 2Big drive are incompatible!!!!!

Arrrgggghhhh!!!!!

Who should I kill first, myself for not reading the spec of the card more carefully, or the salesman who sounded so confident and won my trust that everything with this solution would be OK?

Well thanks for all the helpful tips you guys came up with, I'd have been really lost without you.


FN