detecting my harddrive

[dijit]

I have just installed mandrake (latest version)

i have since added another hard drive that was previously connected to another PC, this hard drive has FAT partitions and lots of important stuff on that i cant loose!

anyway,

I plugged it in, nothing showed up automatically to say i had added it,

so i am in the control center, looking at detected hardware, and all it says is
dev/hdf

how can i get the other hdd working so i can access the files on it?

(i am new to linux so would appreciate it if you spoke slowly ;))

[michaelk]

Mandrake only configures hard drive partitions to mount points during install. So you will need to create directories and add a /etc/fstab entry.

To manually mount partitions

In console window
su -
<root password>

fdisk -l /dev/hdf (To list partitions on drive)

mkdir /mnt/<mount point>
<mount point> change to whatever you want it called

mount -t vfat /dev/hdfx /mnt/<mount point>
(x is number of parition from list)

exit (to exit from root)

You can search this website and find tons of help on fstab and mounting vfat parititons.

[dijit]

hiya,

thanks, it lists the extended partition but when i type
[root@jt jt]# mount -t vfat /dev/hdf2 /mnt/win

it says:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdf2,
or too many mounted file systems
(aren't you trying to mount an extended partition,
instead of some logical partition inside?)

? i have searched but am so unsure, i'd rather just hear advice specifically answering me if you know what i mean

[michaelk]

Nope, you can't mount an extended partition. You want to mount the logical parititions. MSDOS usually parititions similar to the following (assuming only one hd drive in PC):
1st partition c: (hdf1)
2nd partition extended (place holder for logical hdf2)
5th logical paritition d: (hdf5)
6th logical parition e: (hdf6)
etc ...

[dijit]

i'm not sure what you mean
so what do i have to do now instead ?

[michaelk]

Post the output of fdisk -l /dev/hdf

Have you tried to mount the other parititions besides /dev/hdf2?

[dijit]

this is the output:


Disk /dev/hdf: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 2498 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdf1 * 1 31 248976 83 Linux
/dev/hdf2 32 2497 19808145 5 Extended
/dev/hdf5 32 81 401593+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hdf6 82 590 4088511 83 Linux
/dev/hdf7 591 1512 7405933+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdf8 1513 2434 7405933+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdf9 2435 2497 506016 83 Linux


i havent tried mounting any others as i really dont know what i am doing :)

[michaelk]

No FAT32 parititions on /dev/hdf
How are your hard drives connected? Please list by IDE controller number and wether its a master or slave.

[dijit]

oh, er, i dont know

ide, and slave i think..
i dont know about controller number

[michaelk]

What kind of hardware do you have?

Each IDE connector can have a master and slave.

IDE 1 master - /dev/hda
IDE 1 slave - /dev/hdb
IDE 2 master - /dev/hdc
IDE 2 slave - /dev/hdd
IDE 3 master - /dev/hde
IDE 3 slave - /dev/hdf
IDE 4 master - /dev/hdg
IDE 4 slave - /dev/hdh

So how are your hard drives and cdroms connected. Do you have an IDE PCI controller or an onboard RAID controller.

Also post output of fdisk -l /dev/hde

[dijit]

i have a maxtor 19GB hdd, thats the one it sees, connected by IDE

I have the 40GB deskstar connected by IDE as slave

its a raid mobo but i havent set up raid
(its an abit k7tra pro or something)

erm CDROM and floppy also connected

fdisk -l /dev/hde doesnt output anything

[michaelk]

With nothing showing up as /dev/hde there is a problem somewhere. Does the BIOS on bootup show two disk drives?
Check to make sure the IDE and power cables are secure.

Since the maxtor is slave then the deskstar should be the master.
If both drives are connected to the same cable then check to see how the drives are configured. Look at the back of the drive as see how it is jumpered. Post the jumper configuration.

[dijit]

ok winner :)

i took the case of to look at the jumpers etc, and i think the cable may not have been pushed in properly as it kind of went in a bit more when i pushed it, and now
when i do -l /dev/hde it says:

/dev/hde1 * 1 3570 28675993+ c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hde2 3571 5004 11518605 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hde5 3571 5004 11518573+ c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)

thats the one :)

so how now can i get it mounted ?

[michaelk]

Create a mount point for each paritition i.e.
log in as root
create a directory for each

mkdir /mnt/win_c (change win_c to whatever)
chmod 777 /mnt/win_c (let all users read/write)
mkdir /mnt/win_d
chmod 777 /mnt/win_d

edit /etc/fstab file to mount on bootup
/dev/hde1 /mnt/win_c vfat user,auto,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hde5 /mnt/win_d vfat user,auto,umask=0 0 0

exit root

The partitions will mount when PC is booted to mount them at this time:
mount /mnt/win_c
mount /mnt/win_d

For more info see man pages for mount and fstab

[dijit]

fantastic, that looks to be working :) thanks

now just one last really sill yquestion.

how do i now access the stuff on that drive ?

[michaelk]

You can use one of the many browsers from the GUI.

In a console window you can use the cd command i.e.
cd /mnt/win_c (change directories)
ls (to list contents)

Are you running KDE? Check its help file for more info.

[dijit]

ok, well, thanks very much for all your help :) much appreciated