I took the plunge and installed mint 17 over my non-functioning maya 13, hoping that my data would not be lost. I had a raid array installed. It appears that everything has been preserved, including all my data, but I am not sure about the RAID. I looked under "devices", and it shows Linux installed on my 128g ssd, which I wanted, and the two 2TB drives have the following description: /dev/sdb, and /dev/sdc; then, it says after each one: "Intel Matrix RAID member (version 1.1.00). Also, further down, it shows: 2TB block device /dev/dm-0; file system partition 1, Master boot record, 2.0 TB ext4.
Could it really have maintained the RAID array after a new installation, which is supposed to erase everything? Of course, I guess it only erased what was on the SSD, since that is where I installed the new version.
Is there any way I can really verify that it is still working as a RAID (I believe it was set up as RAID 1). I'd appreciate any advice/instructions.
Also, a minor question, but how do I make it so I only have to left click on the mouse once instead of twice like with Windows, to get somewhere?
Thank you for your time

Since you already have the 2TB block device /dev/dm-0 assembled you could inspect things a bit and then just and be done with it.

If it for some reason doesn't work examine some more
and please always post complete stdout/stderr messages.

Thanks, I'll try those things. Just a little clarification, please; do I just type all those things you said in the terminal, just as is? Or do I have to start with sudo, etc..And whatevermountpointname? Really? Or am I supposed to know what a mount point is, or what its name is? I am really ignorant, sorry. Also, what do you mean by "and please always post complete stdout/stderr messages."

Well, what you [c|sh]ould do is first read the manual page, say 'man mdadm', read what its about and then execute a command. Use Sudo if necessary, yes.


The latter/


No you're asking the right questions.


You'll be working in a terminal window. Applications often provide feedback. If there's errors save the text and paste in your reply. That helps you and us to diagnose things.

Thanks. I will be working on all that in the next couple of days, and let you know. Really appreciate your help.

I am lost. This is what I get when I type the first intruction you gave in the terminal:
cat: /etc/mdadm.conf: No such file or directory
paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $ ls -al /dev/mapper
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 100 Dec 22 13:18 .
drwxr-xr-x 16 root root 4380 Dec 22 13:18 ..
crw------- 1 root root 10, 236 Dec 22 13:18 control
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 0 Dec 22 13:18 isw_bjjefddgdc_SafeData
brw------- 1 root root 252, 1 Dec 22 13:18 isw_bjjefddgdc_SafeData1
paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $ cat /proc/mdstat

after that, I don't know what the "mountpointname" is - how do I find that out?

I found the mount point name, under "disks" (the 2TB block device); this is what is written after the heading "mount point": /mnt/780e2e74-58df-4bd2-8951-a6af8e3a9a3cthe
Does that look like a correct name for a mount point?
Anyway, after I put that in, terminal said "only root can do that".
Also, this command:
mdadm --stop /dev/md0
mdadm --examine /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1
mdadm --assemble --scan
mdadm --examine /dev/dm-0

I got the message: "must be superuser to perform this action". When I press "enter", it says "permission denied".
This is my home computer, by the way.

Sorry, here is a copy of what was in the terminal:

paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $ mdadm --stop /dev/md0
mdadm: must be super-user to perform this action
paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $ mdadm --examine /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1
mdadm: cannot open /dev/sdb1: No such file or directory
mdadm: cannot open /dev/sdc1: No such file or directory
paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $ mdadm --assemble --scan
mdadm: must be super-user to perform this action
paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $ mdadm --examine /dev/dm-0
mdadm: cannot open /dev/dm-0: Permission denied
paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $

And this is from the first set of commands you gave me:



paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $ cat /etc/mdadm.conf
cat: /etc/mdadm.conf: No such file or directory
paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $ ls -al /dev/mapper
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 100 Dec 22 22:46 .
drwxr-xr-x 16 root root 4380 Dec 22 22:47 ..
crw------- 1 root root 10, 236 Dec 22 22:46 control
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 0 Dec 22 22:46 isw_bjjefddgdc_SafeData
brw------- 1 root root 252, 1 Dec 22 22:46 isw_bjjefddgdc_SafeData1
paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $ cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10]
unused devices: <none>
paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $

And then the point name command result:

paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $ mount /dev/md1 /mnt//mnt/780e2e74-58df-4bd2-8951-a6af8e3a9a3c
mount: only root can do that
paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $
paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $

Like I said in my reply you must prefix "sudo" to commands to be executed as root user, or become root.

I typed sudo apt-get in front of all the commands, and got the same response on the terminal. I tried just sudo, didn't work either.
Doesn't this part of the response mean that's in a RAID?

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 100 Dec 22 22:46 .
drwxr-xr-x 16 root root 4380 Dec 22 22:47 ..
crw------- 1 root root 10, 236 Dec 22 22:46 control
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 252, 0 Dec 22 22:46 isw_bjjefddgdc_SafeData
brw------- 1 root root 252, 1 Dec 22 22:46 isw_bjjefddgdc_SafeData1
paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $ cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10]

This is getting ridiculous. I hate wasting your time, but I think you think I know a lot more about commands, and Linux in general than I do. I really don't know anything, and I am not computer savvy at all, if you hadn't noticed yet. If you have the patience, and are willing to walk me through exactly what I am supposed to type in the terminal, that would be great. If you want to give up, I understand. Thanks for your time anyway.

It sounds like you're using on motherboard RAID rather than software RAID within Linux itself (at least I assume that this is what "Intel Matrix RAID member (version 1.1.00)" means). In the case you aren't using the Linux software RAID, which is what mdadm and friends control, at all. If that's the case, then there is probably some proprietary Intel piece of software that can be used to check the status of the RAID etc. The commands unSpawn has been giving you are for software RAID. Every RAID vendor has there own software (which may or may not run on Linux well or at all). Worse comes to worse, there's probably a page in your BIOS settings on your motherboard that will let you examine the status.

To be sure, can you post the output of:

So we can see what disk(s) you have mounted?

btmiller is right. I also believe that you have a MB RAID device. In which case, you should take a look at the 'dmraid' command.

Check it out: http://linux.die.net/man/8/dmraid

It has helped me before with motherboard RAID controllers. It worked like a charm for me with Marvell RAID controllers.

This is what I get with df -h:

clean - Erase downloaded archive files
autoclean - Erase old downloaded archive files
check - Verify that there are no broken dependencies
changelog - Download and display the changelog for the given package
download - Download the binary package into the current directory

Options:
-h This help text.
-q Loggable output - no progress indicator
-qq No output except for errors
-d Download only - do NOT install or unpack archives
-s No-act. Perform ordering simulation
-y Assume Yes to all queries and do not prompt
-f Attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in place
-m Attempt to continue if archives are unlocatable
-u Show a list of upgraded packages as well
-b Build the source package after fetching it
-V Show verbose version numbers
-c=? Read this configuration file
-o=? Set an arbitrary configuration option, eg -o dir::cache=/tmp
See the apt-get(8), sources.list(5) and apt.conf(5) manual
pages for more information and options.
This APT has Super Cow Powers.
paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $

ISALAB: Appreciate your input, but boy, I wouldn't know where to start with all the info from that link you gave me.
How do I type in the first command? I tried sudo apt-get and pasted the first line, then the first paragraph, but it says: "invalid command", or "command not found". Could you give me an idea of how to start? Thanks.

Could you guys tell me what to look for in BIOS?

Hmm are you sure you typed "df -h" ... you're supposed to get text like:

That is, you should see a listing of all of your filesystems, devices, and mount points. If this doesn't work, can you please try running the command "mount" (no quotes)?

Unfortunately every BIOS is different. You'll just have to poke around for yourself to find the RAID settings (if they're there). You should consult your motherboard manual if you have difficulty.

Sorry, I typed sudo apt-get before df -h, which I guess I wasn't supposed to do. When I just typed in df -h, I got this:

paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 102G 5.2G 92G 6% /
none 4.0K 0 4.0K 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev 7.8G 4.0K 7.8G 1% /dev
tmpfs 1.6G 1.5M 1.6G 1% /run
none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
none 7.8G 672K 7.8G 1% /run/shm
none 100M 24K 100M 1% /run/user
/dev/mapper/isw_bjjefddgdc_SafeData1 1.8T 1011G 730G 59% /media/paul/780e2e74-58df-4bd2-8951-a6af8e3a9a3c
paul@paul-System-Product-Name ~ $

I did get into the BIOS by hitting "delete" on bootup, but didn't see anything in the BIOS that said "RAID" anywhere. I'll look at my motherboard manual, maybe there's something in there about RAID.