Hi, I just recently changed to linux and I am using Mandrake Linux 10.1. I used to use XP and I had 2 hdd's. One I used for the OS and the other I used for all my files like docs and music. I now have installed linux on the first hdd and I was wondering how I would add the secondary hdd so that I can view it's contents in linux. I don't know if the hdd being NTFS will be a problem or not. The hdd i want to add is a 200gb sata western digital. right now if i go under harddrake2 it shows only one hdd. thanks in advance.

ismael martinez

If your SATA drivers are installed, it should see the hard drive. It will show up in disk drake. If they aren't installed, then you won't see the hard drive. SATA is chipset specific and you have to know exactly what the model is to find the correct drivers. Please post that, and I can be more of more help than a wet rag.

I do not mean to sound negative, but after weeks of trying to get my Linux, Debian Sarge, to work with 2 HDD's I finally gave up this morning and am doing a new installation with a single HDD.

Nothing worked to get Linux to accept or work with a second HDD for my system.

i have a WDC WD200JD-00FYB0. It's a 200gb sata drive. I don't know if this extra info is necessary but i'll put it anyways.
Block Mode: 16 sectors
PIO Mode: 4
Async DMA: Multiword DMA-2
Ultra DMA: Ultra DMA-5
Smart Monitoring: Supported

also, i changed to debian instead of mandrake.

thanks,
ismael m

Hi Martinez,

This is partially directed at you and mostly directed at all the SATA Linux questions that have been posted for the passed year. You aren't doing RAID, but this applies as well, since it depends on the chipset driver.

And I was asking for the SATA chipset driver. Not the hard drive. The SATA chipset will be located on your motherboard itself. Please ignore the latter half of this as you were just asking about JBOD.

Please post the motherboard SATA(Silicon Image?) chipset make and model. You may have a way of doing this without too much trouble. You can stop reading here. The rest is for all of the onboard SATA enthusiasts...

/rant mode 1

OK, just a heads up. SATA is an open spec with closed chipsets. If you use SATA drives, use a 3ware card.

The controller chips are for the most part akin to winmodems. Software driven RAID with closed driver specifications. JBOD is still dependent on having drivers for the chipset as well. So it will be just as broke dick.

www.3ware.com
www.pricewatch.com

If you plan on using SATA for the foreseeable future and are looking into doing RAID or just a bunch of disks(JBOD), then please invest in this card.

It comes in ghetto or server flavor, 2, 4, 8, and 12 ports(drives). Price for the 2 port is 100-120.

Why am I making you spend more money? I'm not. You can keep posting about how it doesn't work on every forum on the planet. I don't care.

Why does it work with this card(brand) in particular, and not a 30 cent chipset? Because it is hardware RAID with GPL'd drivers. Which means it will work with any OS, and will work with any linux distribution natively.

You don't need to do anything but plug it in and configure the BIOS or do it through a web page. Linux will see it and it will be fast, so sayeth the Lord. RAID 0 on your boot partition? No problem. It takes literally 4 seconds to configure. And you are done.

Now for what it isn't. It is not a software winmodem ghetto ass "I found this thingy on my childslave labor motherboard" with 50 patents on how to not let you use your own hardware.

Can linux find it? No, and it's a bonus if it does. It's made to sell motherboards to windows weenies. Costs 30 cents to make and helps to insure recovering from a RAID failure is impossible- but luckily- windows and hard drives never crash- so that's ok.

/rant mode 0

OK, I hope you didn't read all of that. Just the part where SATA hardware manufacturers haven't released their drivers. And get the right hardware if you intend to use linux without reinventing the wheel and wasting 2 weeks of your life. Good luck.

so you're saying that if i get this 3ware card it'll be cake to set-up? if so....i'll buy one right now.

thanks,
ismael m

Yep, if you get the card you won't need to set it up in Linux. It'll just work as the drivers are native, and the RAID or JBOD is done via the BIOS hardware.

could you point me to a place on where to buy one that handles 2 drives?

also, since this hd is ntfs do i need to change that to make it work right? i have files on here that i can't afford to lose so if i need to do that is there a safe way?

thanks,
ismael m

btw the motherboard has the intel ICH5 if there is a simple solution

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=3WA80062LP&c=pw

You don't need to change your filesystem. It doesn't care. If you are installing it on with a windows os, just install these drivers before the install.

http://www.3ware.com/support/downloa...es=&os=Windows

no need for extra card simply load sata module specific for your chipset. I have linux on sata and never used any extra hardware.
In your case you will need to load ICH5/ICH5R SATA controller module. That is all, plus setting right BIOS options (non-RAID SATA)

ok...i now have the raid card. i plan on getting another hd but right now i just want to be able to use this one. i installed the card and i get the bios-utlility at start-up but nothing shows in linux. how do i go about mouting this drive?

The drive is /dev/sda1(or 2 or 3, depending on the partition you want to mount).