Ubuntu Error 21 on WinXP with Windows on RAID0 Drive and Ubuntu on eSATA drive
 

Last night I tried to install Ubuntu 7.04 onto my WinXP Pro PC and received Grub Error 21 and when I reversed the boot order in the BIOS I read a message saying Error Loading Operating System.

My hardrives are configured as Such:

Drive 0 and Drive 1 are SATA RAID 0 74GB WD Raptors
Drive 2 is a SATA Non-RAID 74 GB Raptor (The drive I installed Ubunto onto)
Drive 3 is a SATA 250 GB Samsung Drive

When, I installed Ubuntu from the Live CD, I disconnected Drive 3 to avoid any confusion.
I was trying to set up a dual boot system with Windows as default and I could press a button during boot-up to run Ubunto. I followed the following instructions from the Ubuntu website guide for dual boot:

"Case 1: You haven't installed Ubuntu yet
Do a fresh install of Ubuntu with the windows hard drive still plugged in. Ubuntu will automatically detect the other hard drive, and Grub will automatically list it as a choice at startup. You can then also see the other hard drive and access it while in Ubuntu by mounting it."

From what I have read all around the Web today is that my MBR got screwed up and can only be recovered by acessing the Windows Recovery Console. I don't have a Windows disk. I have one of those install disks that you get when you buy a new PC and some other progs besides Windows are on it. Do ya think i could install the recovery console using that disk? Is there some command line utility that i could do to fix my problem with out screwing up the RAID 0 configuration? Another wierd thing is that I can no longer mount the Windows RAID 0 volume in from Ubuntu Live CD even though it still recognizes the size as 2x74GB.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

VC

Is this a hardware RAID, and does Windows need any special software to use it (drivers)? It may be that your RAID got out of sync. I don't have much knowledge of setting up RAID's in Windows, so I haven't seen this actual problem. You can fix your MBR by booting a windows 95/98 floppy and running fdisk /mbr. But that will only reset it so you can boot to Windows.

There is software that needs to be installed in order to achieve RAID0. I fear that my RAID got out of sync. Is out of sync. RAID the kiss of death and I need to reinstall Windows? I would be satisfied booting to Windows again and trying to get Ubunto installed again. I do not have a floppy drive. you know these modern PC's don't use them anymore. Do ya think I could find one and burn to CD?

My ultimate goal is for Dual boot just because I still have my games that are made for Windows.

Thx for the advice,

VC

The tools might be on a Windows 95/98 install CD, I can't remember (that was a long time ago, and I'm an old man). I would HIGHLY suggest not using RAID0, but that is something you now know. It works OK with SCSI disks, but with ATA/SATA disks, it isn't a good option (unless you don't care about your data, and want pure speed). You may be able to fix things by physically reversing your Windows disks temporarily and reinstalling Ubuntu, but that is just a guess. I'm guessing that fixing the MBR on your first disk should put the RAID back in sync, but I could be wrong, and you have lost everything. You CAN make a boot CD that contains the proper files, but I wouldn't even attempt to pretend that I'm an expert at that. A Google search should find the information to do that. IF you are able to get back to Windows, I'd say copy your install to the disk you are currently using for Ubuntu, and only use one disk for Windows. If you want RAID, then at least get a decent backup plan going.

I'm more than willing to help in any way I can, so keep me posted.

And yes, I still dual boot for gaming purposes (and to write Word documents for work).

You will need dmraid to see an MS FakeRaid array.

So this dmraid app allows Ubuntu to see MS FakeRaid array? Cool. So I finally got Ubuntu to install on my eSATA drive after disconnected my RAID drives. It's pretty cool.

I just diconnected the eSATA drive reconnected the RAID drives and am now im in the process of recovering my Windows after screwing up my MBR.

If successful I'll try to get a backup plan and get the dual boot going again.

Will dmraid allow Ubuntu to see the MSFake Raid array and thereby allow me properly set-up dual boot? I would like default boot to windows cause I have some remote admin sw that i use to remite my PC when I travel and when I do a remote reboot, I don't want to have to have somebody stand by my pc and switch from Ubuntu to windows while I explain it to them on the phone.

Thanks in advance,

VC

It should. I have a FakeRaid that I dual boot both Win2K and Debian from. It's difficult to get debian loaded to a FakeRaid, but clearly it can be done. :)

I don't want to install debian on FakeRAID. I just want to be able to see Windows RAID drives from ubuntu.

I understand that. My point was that you can see FakeRaids as well as install Linux to them.

Install dmraid and run "dmraid -tay". If it displays some funny response then run "dmraid -ay" and you will find your array partition(s) in /dev/mapper. The one without the ending digit will be the whole array and not a partition on it. If it says "no RAID device found" or something like that, then you may not be able to see it without some extra effort.

Thanks for the clarification. We are on the same page. I'm a total noob so i need to know how exactly do I run the dmraid program. Is this gonna be a command line type of program?

VC

Don't try to make it more complicated than it is. Just use synaptic and install dmraid. Then follow the instructions in my previous post. The commands can be run from a command line with sudo, as in:
Or they can be run from root without the "sudo /sbin" stuff. If the response is too confusing to deal with, just post it here and I'll translate it for you. But, essentially, "-tay" is a test probe. If it finds a raid device then use "-ay" to activate it. The array device is put in /dev/mapper.

Okay man. It appears that dmaraid was installed properly:

don@don-ubuntu:~$ sudo /sbin/dmraid -tay
Password:
isw_ddghehegbd_Volume0: 0 290441728 striped 2 256 /dev/sda 0 /dev/sdb 0
isw_ddghehegbd_Volume01: 0 290439072 linear /dev/.static/dev/mapper/isw_ddghehegbd_Volume0 63
don@don-ubuntu:~$ sudo /sbin/dmraid -ay
RAID set "isw_ddghehegbd_Volume0" already active
RAID set "isw_ddghehegbd_Volume01" already active
don@don-ubuntu:~$

Why is this the only drive that I cannot mount? When I click on places and then computer and then the drive, I get a box that pops up and says "cannot mount the volume"

I believe that this one (/dev/mapper/isw_ddghehegbd_Volume01) is the mountable partition. The other one is the whole array. At least that's the way I've always seen it.