Mounting NTFS Sata drive on FC5, "/dev/sda5 is not a valid block device"
 

Hi. I'm trying to mount a set of NTFS drives (my windows data partition) on Fedora Core 5. I have installed an NTFS module thingy, so now ntfs is a recognised file system. I have edited /etc/fstab with:

/dev/sda5 /mnt/windows ntfs users,owner,ro,umask=000 0 0

then i run

mount -a

and recieve the error:

mount: /dev/sda5 is not a valid block device

Now i think the problem might be that the SATA drive isn't natively supported by linux, i had to insall an extra module at the install stage so that the device was recognised. I saw somewhere i have to recompile the kernal with the module included, but have no idea how to go about this. My computer specs:

200GB Seagate Baracuda 7200 SATA HDD
MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR motherboard

i think that the modules i installed were promise SATA, promise RAID, and i might need an Nvidia sata driver, but im not sure (probably not tbh). The only other similar threads are about USB pen drives/flash drives/removable HDD and so are not relevant to my problem. Any help you can give me on this would be much appreciated. Thanks.

First, what do you mean by "a set of NTFS drives"? In your specs, you say you have ONE drive.
How did you determine that Windows was on sda5?

Please post the output of "fdisk -l" (run as root)

If you have FC5 running, then you don't have any SATA driver issues

Sorry yeah, a set of NTFS partitions i should say. Here's fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/hdc: 60.0 GB, 60040544256 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7299 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdc1 * 1 7299 58629186 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1958 15727603+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 1959 19457 140560717+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 1959 12829 87321276 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 14360 19457 40949653+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 12830 12842 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 12843 14359 12185271 8e Linux LVM

Now I'm really confused. You say you have one 200 GB SATA drive, but fdisk says you have a 60GB IDE and a 160GB which **could** be either SATA or SCSI--either one will result in the sda (vs hda) device name.

This aside, I assume that Fedora is running from sda7/8 and that you are using LVM. This might be a clue. I am not familiar with LVM, but you may have to address other partitions differently.

Yes you're correct, it is 160GB. Silly me. Yes it is a SATA drive, clearly 160GB not 200GB. And yes, i also have a 60GB IDE drive which is NTFS. Now that you have reminded me, i just tried mounting the IDE NTFS drive using:

/dev/hdc1 /mnt/windows ntfs users,owner,ro,umask=000 0 0

and it works perfectly. So im pretty sure the problem is whatever linux uses to map my partitions on a SATA drive. Someone mentioned that i need to recompile my kernel with the "drivers built in, rather than using modules" or something similar (though i can't remember where i read this).

Again--if Fedora is running on sda7, then I don't think you have driver issues.

How about my LVM theory?

What is LVM? How do i know if im using it? If i am using it, how would i know how to address the partitions?

Update1:

aha, i think i am using LVM (Logical Volume Manager). I ran "man lvm" and from the filenames/foldernames it used in the manual, i deduce that i am indeed running it on my system. How to address the partitions though, is still a mystery to me.

Your linux partitions are LVM however this shouldn't have anything do with not being able to mount your NTFS partitions. However if your NTFS partitions on the SATA drive are configured as dynamic disks (basically a MS LVM) then you might have to recompile the kernel to include LDM support. Look at windows diskmanager to see if sda1&5 are dynamic disks.

Why wouldn't fdisk tell us if the partitions were "dynamic disks"? For that matter, if fdisk sees a partition, why would int not be mountable in Linux?

Windows dynamic disks require LDM kernel support.

Just because fdisk sees an NTFS partition the OS can not read it without NTFS kernel support. Same as fdisk seeing a linux partition ID of 83 does not mean how the partition is formated nor if the current installed OS has support for that filesystem.

Well, searching the internet i came across this forum thread http://www.linuxformat.co.uk/index.p...t=1276&start=0. In it, it suggests:

"type "lvdisplay" to see a list of your logical partitions."

After running that, i get this output:

[root@localhost ~]# lvdisplay
--- Logical volume ---
LV Name /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
VG Name VolGroup00
LV UUID yRXoLl-rip7-BYiK-Kn1L-M4qN-CFKh-3S0a5T
LV Write Access read/write
LV Status available
# open 1
LV Size 9.62 GB
Current LE 308
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors 0
Block device 253:7

--- Logical volume ---
LV Name /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01
VG Name VolGroup00
LV UUID ZQNBP6-wKY5-254i-tvE1-X0M0-N20U-m6sLF1
LV Write Access read/write
LV Status available
# open 1
LV Size 1.94 GB
Current LE 62
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors 0
Block device 253:8

So it would seem that the windows drives are not being seen as logical volumes?

Edit: From what you're saying, it does seem fairly likely that i will have to recompile the kernel to include LDM support, however i have absolubtly no idea how to do this. Some guidance would be greatly appreciated.

LVM is just for linux partitions. Check in windows to see if sda1 and sda5 partitions are dynamic disks. If so then you will need LDM support. If they are not then at the moment I do not have an idea why hdc1 mounts but sda1 does not.

They are almost certain to be Dynamic Disks, as they were created under the Windows XP partitioning software. Im 99% certain that they are Dynamic Disks (although i will check as soon as i get the opportunity).

I'm not entirely sure how to check if they are dynamic disks, however under computer management -> storage -> when i right click on the Sata drive, the option "convert to dynamic disk" comes up. This seems to suggest i don't have dynamic disks. Any way to find out for certain? Also, any other ideas on how to fix it if i don't?