after much searching, new hard drive still not found

rose_bud4201 · 08-07-2003, 01:56 PM

Hi,
This computer used to be a dual-boot Windows 2000 Prof. and Mandrake 9.0, with 1 20-Gb drive as the bootable drive and 2 20-Gb disks on a Hpt RAID-0 array. (I never tried to get Linux to see the raid disks - they were NTFS and worked better as Windows-only.)
I just recently deleted Windows off the system entirely and broke up the raid array since I had no further use for windows and could use the drives better elsewhere. One of them has never been formatted by itself, and I would like to put it back in this system as the slave hdd. However, when I try this, the BIOS has no problems - it finds 2 20-Gb drives in a Master/Slave arrangement, and linux boots fine....but I can't actually _see_ the slave drive!
I've read posts where the fstab configuration could be ignoring the existance of a /dev/hdb drive because of cd-rom arrangements, etc, and I don't believe that's the problem:

Code:

$ cat /etc/fstab
/dev/hda5 / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hda7 /home ext3 defaults 0 0
none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/hdd,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/cdrom2 supermount dev=/dev/scd0,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=auto,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 swap swap defaults 0 0

No luck either with trying random "fdisk /dev/hd*" commands, either (I've tried up to replacing the '*' with everything from 'a', which is my primary hdd and the only one that works, through 'f')
As requested by finegan:

Code:

$ /usr/bin/lspcidrake
unknown         : VIA Technologies|VT8367 [KT266]
unknown         : VIA Technologies|VT8367 [KT266 AGP]
ne2k-pci        : Realtek|RTL-8029(AS)
audigy          : Creative Labs|EMU10K2 Audigy Audio Processor
emu10k1-gp      : Creative Labs|EMU10K2 Audigy Gameport
ohci1394        : Creative Labs|EMU10K2 Audigy IEEE1394 Firewire Controller
unknown         : VIA Technologies Inc|VT8233 PCI to ISA Bridge
unknown         : VIA Technologies|VT82C586 IDE [Apollo]
usb-uhci        : VIA Technologies|VT82C586B USB
usb-uhci        : VIA Technologies|VT82C586B USB
hptraid         : Triones|HPT366
Card:ATI Radeon : ATI|Radeon QY
unknown         : Virtual|Hub []
unknown         : Virtual|Hub []
unknown         : Chic Technology Corp.|PS2/USB Browser Combo Mouse [Human Interface Devices|Boot Interface Subclass|Mouse]
unknown         : Lexmark|Inkjet color printer [Printer|Printer|Bidirectional]

My dmesg output is posted on a temp website so I don't take up half the page here.
What am I missing?
Laura

320mb · 08-07-2003, 06:54 PM

OK, has /dev/hdb been formatted with a file system yet? IE..ext2, 3 or reiserfs?? according to dmesg, your system recognizes both of your drives Quote... hda: MAXTOR 6L020J1, ATA DISK drive
hdb: MAXTOR 6L020J1, ATA DISK drive
but without a formatted file system the drive will not be mounted.
Linux does not mount a drive by itself, there needs to be a file system that is recognized......

rose_bud4201 · 08-08-2003, 12:00 AM

Ahh! No, I haven't formatted it yet. The filesystem as it currently stands is 1/2 of a raid array and definitely unrecognizable by an OS. Ok - after I format it, should I let linux find it first, or put the line in /etc/fstab first? (Not quite sure which is the chicken and which is the egg...)

thanks so much!

dowmun · 08-08-2003, 08:21 AM

Hi,
As a newbie, I have a question.
I thought that you should be able to access a new harddrive with the fdisk command. It should not have to be mounted. If it is setup as a slave on the primary IDE, then the command:
fdisk /dev/hdb
should do it.

Here is where I get lost. In looking at your dmesg info, I notice that you have a line setting up /dev/hdb for SCSI emulation. I have a similar line for /dev/hdc, but it is for my CD-Writer. Is this line needed for your harddrive? It appears to be causing problems later on in the dmesg log.

Sorry for butting in, but I am curious.

rose_bud4201 · 08-08-2003, 12:08 PM

Hi! No, you're right. I thought the same about fdisk, frankly, and I'm still mystified. However, the drive set up for SCSI emulation is my cd burner....I don't know where the /dev/hdb assignment came from....

My system as it is now looks like this:
Primary master: the working hard drive (/dev/hda)
Primary slave: the non-found hard drive (not found)
Secondary master: CD-ROM (/dev/hdc)
Secondary slave: cd-burner (/dev/scsi0)

Is there any way to change where it assigns /dev/hdb??

dowmun · 08-08-2003, 12:42 PM

Hi,
I do not know enough about this to give advice. I can tell you how it is done on my machine.
I use lilo (not grub or anything else, so this may not be for you.)
In my /etc/lilo.conf file is a line that says
append="hdc=ide-scsi"
I believe this is what tells my machine to use SCSI emulation on my CD-Writer.
If you use lilo, you might look for a line that says
append="hdb=ide-scsi"
You might try commenting out that line.
After that you would have to run /sbin/lilo and (I think) reboot.
I may be in a little over my head.

rose_bud4201 · 08-08-2003, 08:47 PM

Thank you very much! That gives me more than enough to search on, and a good idea of what I should be looking for. I really appreciate it.

I'll keep you posted

rose_bud4201 · 08-10-2003, 10:01 PM

Oh, wait...I just had a thought:
Since this hard drive was out of a raid-0 array, it doesn't have a valid partition table of its own at all - might that be the reason fdisk "can't read device"?