Re: SATA drive problem

Top Page
Attachments:
Message as email
+ (text/html)
+ (text/plain)
Delete this message
Reply to this message
Author: Mark Jarvis
Date:  
To: plug
Subject: Re: SATA drive problem








EIDE drives can connect to the primary channel (POST calls it channel
0), master & slave and to the secondary channel (channel 1) master
& slave for a possible total of 4 devices. Before one of my disks
started dying & all this started I had three HDs and a DVD. My
motherboard also has two SATA connectors--which POST calls channels 2 & 3.
I've added one SATA drive to the system on channel 2. At the moment,
the second SATA connector--channel 3--is unused. I'll add a second SATA
drive once I'm sure that everything is working.

Although I didn't lose any data, that dying drive has cost me at least
12 very uncomfortable hours.

-mj-

Bob Elzer wrote:



Silly question, but if it's a
SATA drive, how did you install it on an IDE slot ?
 
 


From:

[mailto:plug-discuss-bounces@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us] On Behalf Of
Mark Jarvis
Sent: Friday, October 02, 2009 12:49 PM
To: Main PLUG discussion list
Subject: Re: SATA drive problem



Final result:

Here's a better statement of what I thought  were my problems with the new
SATA drive on Linux:
Booting into Ubuntu 9.04, Gnome's File
Browser showed ghosts of the old channel 0 Master--complete with the labels of the old partitions,
and did not show the new drive. When I brought up Gnome's gparted, it
saw the new drive just fine--but as sda! I had expected almost
anything--except sda. (POST identifies it as Channel 2 Master.)

Solutions:
I found out that starting at least one major kernel revision ago, drives
are enumerated in the order that they are discovered during the boot
process. So the SATA drive was the first drive found. Then, when I
re-booted after updating my system, Gnome's file browser dropped the
ghosts and found the new SATA drive OK, so that problem went away.
Problems solved, I learned a few things, and I didn't have to
re-install. Except for installing updates and re-booting, I didn't have
to do anything to Linux for it to use the SATA drive.

Also, apparently I'm not the only person to have found that if sda is
also the Setup boot drive, then a linux installation on sdb will alter
sda's MBR. I still don't understand all I know on this, but I'm going
to continue to be a pragmatist: "If it works, use it."

Again, Thanks to all who responded,

Mark Jarvis

Eric Shubert wrote:

So would you care to fill us in a bit?

Mark Jarvis wrote:


Thanks to all those who have responded. I think that I now have a pretty
fair idea of the way Linux today assigns device labels. Also, when I
re-booted after updating my system, the file browser dropped the ghosts
and found the new SATA drive OK, so that problem went away.

Once again, thanks to all who responded.

-mj-


Mark Jarvis wrote:


Up until a couple of days ago, I had 3 EIDE drives and POST reported
my hard drives:

    IDE Channel 0 Master     a 120 GB drive
    IDE Channel 0 Slave       a 120 GB drive
    IDE Channel 1 Master     a 160 GB drive
    IDE Channel 1 Slave        a DVD
    IDE Channel 2 Master     None
    IDE Channel 3 Master     None


Simplifying things, channel 0 Master has my Windows Installation,
Channel 0 Slave my Linux stuff, and Channel 1 Master is a backup/clone
of Channel 0 Master. Ubuntu sees the three drives as sda, sdb, and sdc.

Monday I picked up a couple of 1.0 TB SATA drives. Starting slowly, I
added one to Channel 2. I cloned the Windows drive (Channel 0 Master)
to it, pulled the power plug on Channel 0 Master, and changed the boot
sequence in Setup. I also changed the label on one of the partitions
on the new drive. POST reports:

    IDE Channel 0 Master     None
    IDE Channel 0 Slave       a 120 GB drive
    IDE Channel 1 Master     a 160 GB drive
    IDE Channel 1 Slave       a  DVD
    IDE Channel 2 Master     a SATA 1 TB drive
    IDE Channel 3 Master     None


Windows works pretty much OK. Booting into Ubuntu 9.04, I was
surprised that Gnome's File Browser shows ghosts of the old channel 0
Master--complete with the labels of the old partitions, and does not
show the new drive. I brought up Gnome's gparted. It saw the new drive
just fine--as sda! I had expected almost anything--except sda. This is
not a "real work" Linux installation and besides, /home is in a
different partition, so I could just re-install and that would
probably fix things, but I'd rather make what's there work correctly.

Questions:
    1) Why did a SATA drive on Channel 3 show up as sda?
    2) How can I kick Gnome's File Browser into dropping the ghosts 
and showing the contents of the new drive?


I guess that all of my admin/reference books are out of date, because
I can't find anything in them that helps. The MAN pages would probably
help, but I don't know where to start.

Any help, pointers to where I can find explanations, etc. will be much
appreciated.

Thanks,

Mark Jarvis

------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list -
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss










---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list -
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss