HD "errors" with partition

[happybunny]

here is a weird one for ya:

i have a maxtor 160 gig drive full of mp3s. I have this mounted as /dev/hde in my /ddrive folder. I am listening to mp3s via a smb share right now (can you hear it?).

However, the issue is, I put this drive into a new RHES3 server to consolidate and it claims there is no partition on it. It of course doesn't mount in any way. So i put it back into the original machine.

it automounts via fstab, and it is sharing out again (rock on!). BUT, if i fdisk /dev/hde, it shows that there is no partition table, and therefor no data on the disk i am currently listening too.

I find this weird. The /proc folder has all the right info on the type/capacity/model of the drive, just there is no partition in fdisk.

any thoughts as to what is going on? I am currently moving all the files off so any suggestions would be helpful..other than simply creating a new partition table...i would like some troubleshooting ideas that might have saved me the trouble of copying 100+gigs of data across the network.

Thanks again
happy(but confused)bunny

[hard candy]

It wouldn't be unix/bsd slices would it?

[happybunny]

is it possible to mount an entire drive, rather than just a partition?

i seem to have mounted /dev/hde not /dev/hde1 or something...maybe there isn't a parition on the drive, but could it be mountable anyway?

And no, it is not a bsd slice since i have never loaded bsd or unix nor would I think to have done that.

[EnigmaOne]

[off-topic]
HC,
The third quote in your sig line, "If You're Not A Part Of The Solution, There's Good Money To Made In Prolonging The Problem." is most properly cited as follows:
Gates, William H. III My Life in a Bong Bowl: Personal Epiphannies of Unrestrained Greed as a Virtue. Redmond: Microsoft Press, 1994.
....just thought you'd like to know.
[/off-topic]

[EnigmaOne]

Originally posted by happybunny
is it possible to mount an entire drive, rather than just a partition?

From what you're saying, it sounds like your /dev/hde is a single extended partition/logical drive.

What partitioning tools did you use to prepare the drive with, and what does the pertinent line in your /etc/fstab file look like?

On the surface, it does sound a bit strange because, without a partition table, the drive should be inaccessible.
Good drive, BTW. I have a few of those myself. :)

[happybunny]

totally weird!!

Well, i guess I do not have a partition on that drive. In the new machine it now mounts via:

mount /dev/hdg /gdrive

just fine.

fdisk /dev/hdg

shows no partitions, zero, zilch, nothing for partitions.

I can only assume i used fdisk to create the original partition since thats the only linux tool i know to do such a thing.

but its working now. Think I should create a partition anyway? The "data" files are all safely somewhere else at this point.

[EnigmaOne]

I'm wondering if you used the Maxtor utilities to prepare the drive for installation (thinking overlay or something else non-standard here), and if the BIOS on the computer you're stuffing the 160gig into is up to snuff to handle drives > 132GB. Depending on the motherboard/BIOS, you can see some major weirdness with the latter.

In installing the 160s I have, I didn't mess with the Maxtor utils, and just used fdisk to make primaries; but they're showing up as valid parts.

[afterthought]
Yeah, if the data is off-loaded someplace, I would go ahead and drill-into why the partition table is weirded-out--even so far as to re-parting the drive with various tools to see what the effect of each has on how it's being seen by the different OSses.

It actually sounds like it would be a bit of fun to mess around with. (I never get to have the interesting problems!)

[happybunny]

i think what might have happened is this drive came from a W2K machine and MAY have been partitioned NTFS via MS.

When i created a new partition on it in linux, it defaulted to being an NTFS partition, which makes me think that is what it was before.

I have since created an ext3 so I have nothing left to troubleshoot with.

Currently re-migrating mp3s and juggling other data. 5 years ago I would have never thought that i would have over half a terabyte of storage in my basement, not to mention that it is mostly full!!