LinuxQuestions.org
Visit Jeremy's Blog.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Newbie
User Name
Password
Linux - Newbie This Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question? If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 12-31-2007, 02:21 PM   #1
wantabee
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Apr 2006
Posts: 25

Rep: Reputation: 15
two hard drives with HDA designator


Simple question.
I installed fedora core 4 on a hard drive with HDA designator. Since then, I bought a slightly larger HD and installed fedora 8 on it. When I make the larger hd primary and the smaller hd secondary via the pc ribbon cable, fedora 8 doesn't recognize the smaller hd and I suspect it's because both were originally installed as HDA at different times. So, how do I modify the smaller hd to become HDB?
All I really want to do, is mount the smaller hd so I can copy files between the hard drives.
Thanks much folks!!
 
Old 12-31-2007, 03:15 PM   #2
David the H.
Bash Guru
 
Registered: Jun 2004
Location: Osaka, Japan
Distribution: Arch + Xfce
Posts: 6,852

Rep: Reputation: 2037Reputation: 2037Reputation: 2037Reputation: 2037Reputation: 2037Reputation: 2037Reputation: 2037Reputation: 2037Reputation: 2037Reputation: 2037Reputation: 2037
AIUI, the linux kernel determines which drive is which based on the bus location, bus 0 master is hda, bus 0 slave is hdb, bus 1 master is hdc, etc. But the location of the files in the tree depends on where the partitions are mounted, and that's determined by the /etc/fstab file.

Are you saying that the drive is now completely unavailable? Or does it just not boot up correctly or something? Try running 'cat /proc/partitions' to see what block devices your kernel is actually seeing.
 
Old 12-31-2007, 05:15 PM   #3
syg00
LQ Veteran
 
Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Australia
Distribution: Lots ...
Posts: 20,953

Rep: Reputation: 4084Reputation: 4084Reputation: 4084Reputation: 4084Reputation: 4084Reputation: 4084Reputation: 4084Reputation: 4084Reputation: 4084Reputation: 4084Reputation: 4084
I suspect this is probably a (hardware) jumper issue on the drives themselves. If either/both is specifically jumpered for master/slave, moving them around like that isn't going to work as you want.
Make them both "cable select" - and use a new "80" ribbon cable, not the old grey "40" cable.
 
Old 01-05-2008, 10:03 AM   #4
wantabee
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Apr 2006
Posts: 25

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 15
This morning I noticed a partition (/boot) on my smaller hd was visible under 'computer'. When I mounted the volume, I actually have visibility into the /boot partition of my second hd.

Cat /proc/partitions provides (in part)
major minor #blocks name
8 0 9999864 sda
8 1 200781 sda1
8 2 9791017 sda2
8 16 4210920 sdb
8 17 104391 sdb1
8 18 4104607 sdb2
........
So AIUI is seeing a sda, and sdb. Trick is to mount more than just a partition from the second hd.

two options that I'm working on are
a) in menu.lst add
map (hd0) (hda)
map (hd1) (hdb)
b) in fstab
change
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
to
LABEL=Storage /mydata ext3 defaults 1 2

Any suggestions, direction, greatly appreciated
 
Old 01-06-2008, 11:38 PM   #5
wantabee
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Apr 2006
Posts: 25

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 15
Well, option a was a flop.
Any suggestions of how to progress, David?
 
Old 01-07-2008, 01:09 AM   #6
AwesomeMachine
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Jan 2005
Location: USA and Italy
Distribution: Debian testing/sid; OpenSuSE; Fedora; Mint
Posts: 5,524

Rep: Reputation: 1015Reputation: 1015Reputation: 1015Reputation: 1015Reputation: 1015Reputation: 1015Reputation: 1015Reputation: 1015
every filesystem in linux has a mount point, which is a directory, usually in /mnt or /media, although sometimes it is a directory right off the root. The boot drive has the root file system, and the other drive needs to be mounted somewhere. In a twisted sort of way you are correct that since both were /dev/hda at one time, it's messing things up. But it's messings things up because you need to edit /etc/fstab, and put in the correct settings when you swap the hard drives.

Say you have

/dev/hdb1 /data ext3 defaults 0 0

in /etc/fstab, but there is no /data directory in /. You need to make that directory, and mount the file system:

mkdir /data
mount /data
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
2 hard drives, XP on my main sata drives, 10.2 on my IDE LILO doesnt show on boot up Dachy Slackware 14 01-03-2008 07:01 AM
What would be the designator for a USB drive? 357mag Mandriva 3 03-01-2005 11:13 AM
External Hard Drives/Hard Drives ddrfreak Mandriva 1 12-16-2004 06:12 PM
How can I boot either one of my hard drives /dev/hda or /dev/hdb, I have RH9 and FC2 omogunkristi Linux - General 1 06-21-2004 05:11 AM
Upgrading hard drives on Software raid 1 boot drives. linuxboy123 Linux - General 0 12-11-2003 03:28 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Newbie

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:26 PM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration