Ubuntu as alternate OS on 2nd HD on Dell

[oldfred]

It is not seeing any partitions on your second drive, but boot script shows sdb??

How is sdb plugged in. Is it SATA or IDE. Is it on the same IDE channel as your CD drive?

[smurphy_it]

As per smurphy_it request:
I burned a Hiren's Boot CD.
Now what?
Or, which utility(ies) do I use to determine the status of my two hard drives?

I need to download that tool to test out a crappy windows system for a friend of mine. I'll be checking it out shortly, however, from their web page it looks like you'll be doing a hdd check from the "Hard Disk Tools menu". You'll need to know what kind of hard drive it is for starters. If not, one of the tools in there should be able to determine that. Watch out for the "low level formatting" tools. It will totally wipe your drive, and its not easily recovered (as it's a low level format as opposed to an O/S format, which is a high level format).

[mick_ub_v11]

On the Hiren's Boot CD were a couple of utilities I recognized, so I ran these: Seagate Disk Wizard (which was used to install the second HDD (ST3160023A where ST is Seagate Technologies) and Seagate SeaTools.

**************************

Disk Wizard returned this:

Disc 1: 28.64 GB Maxtor 6E030L0 IDE (0) Primary Master

Disc 2: 149.1 GB ST3160023A IDE (0) Primary Slave

****************

more detail:

Disc 1: 28.64 GB (Partitions)

**

FS:Fat16 Partition: 0XDE
(EISA configuration)
31.35 MB
PRIMARY

**

C:
28.64 GB NTFS
PRIMARY

**

Unallocated 7.844MB
UNALLOCATED


*******

Disc 2: 149.1 GB (partitions)

**

Disc2_Vol1 (D: )
58.27 GB NTFS
PRIMARY

**

E:
89.79 GB EXT3
LOGICAL

**

Linux Swap 507 MB
LOGICAL

**

Unallocated 480 KB
UNALLOCATED

**

Linux Swap 509 MB
LOGICAL

***********************************

SeaTools returned the following:

Maxtor 6E030L0, s/n xxx, rev. NAR61590
Device 0 = ATA Device Maxtor 6E030L0 on generic PCI ATA
Max Native address: 60058655
Device is 28 bit addressed
number of LBAs 60058655 (30.750 GB)
This drive supports security features
SMART is supported and enabled
SMART has not been tripped
DST is supported
Logging feature set is not supported
POH 22218

*****

Seagate ST3160023A, s/n xxx, rev. 8.01
Device 1 = ATA Device Seagate ST3160023A on generic PCI ATA
Max Native address: 312581807
Device is 48 bit addressed
number of LBAs 312581807 (160.042 GB)
This drive supports security features
SMART is supported and enabled
SMART has not been tripped
DST is supported
Logging feature set is supported
POH 15457 Current Temp 36

**********************************

Thanks,
- Mick

[smurphy_it]

Bios getting confused ? This is what I see in this thread:

Secondary IDE
Drive 0: GCR-8481B - Diagnostics Not Supported
Drive 1: NEC DVD+RW ND-1100A - Diagnostics not supported.

Yet, when you run the HDD tools from the Hirens Boot CD, you get this:

Disc 2: 149.1 GB ST3160023A IDE (0) Primary Slave

Very peculiar. Have you tried enabling the "Primary Slave" as a boot device in the BIOS.

BIOS Version A06
Under Drive Configuration I have:
Diskette Drive A:
SATA Primary Drive : Off
SATA Secondary drive : Off
Primary Master Drive: Hard Drive
Primary Slave Drive: Off  <--- Can you change this --> ?
Secondary Master Drive: CD-ROM Device
Secondary Slave Drive: CD-ROM Device

If you are "technical" I'd suggest you verify the jumper settings for the two hard drives, and indicate what IDE channel they are on. As sometimes the drive is showing up as a secondary slave, and other times as a primary slave. If they are both on the same IDE cable (Primary), you can try forcing one to master, and other to slave... Or set them both to Cable select. Could try unhooking the CD-ROMs to take that out of the picture.

[smurphy_it]

You have this configuration:

Primary Master = 30GB Maxtor HDD
Primary Slave = 160GB Seagate HDD
Secondary Master = GCC CD-ROM/DVD-X
Secondary Slave = NEC DVD RW

I'd validate jumper settings on the two hard drives. Verify they are master and slave. Some drives have a jumper on them that indicate they are the "only drive in the chain". Verify this isn't the case with your maxtor drive too!

[YesWeCan]

It is curious that when Ubuntu is run from CD the 149GB drive is accessible. Presumably, it was also accessible using Windows (although Windows cannot be booted now). But Grub's loader cannot access it. Perhaps the bios is in a different mode, or something is not yet enabled in the bios. I don't think it is a boot device selection issue because the 149GB is not being booted by the bios.

Two possible work-arounds:
1) Install Grub to the 149GB drive's MBR and restore the standard MBR to the Windows disk. Then add Grub to the Windows boot-loader menu: boot Ubuntu using Windows.

2) Install Grub to the MBR of the 149GB disk and swap it with the Windows disk so it becomes the primary master. This may create a problem with Windows updates, tho.

[mick_ub_v11]

I booted via the Hiren's Boot CD and am able to load WinXP fairly normally. Everything seems to work. Perhaps a bit slower. The D: drive shows in "My Computer" as having the approx. 60GB now allocated after designating the balance of the 160GB D: drive (90GB) to Ubuntu.

Just can't get anywhere without a boot CD.

All in the name of doing without 100% Microsoft!

- Mick

[smurphy_it]

I would suspect this is your problem:

FS:Fat16 Partition: 0XDE
(EISA configuration)
31.35 MB
PRIMARY

Perhaps you can backup that partition, then delete it to see if it fixes your problem. If not, restore the partition. Clonezilla should be able to do this for you (in case Hiren's boot CD can't) which is available at http://clonezilla.org

[mick_ub_v11]

Also:

I am thinking that if I give up in exasperation and wipe both drives in order to make the entire machine (both drives) Ubuntu, the BIOS will continue to have the very same issue, i.e., it cannot see the second drive. Yes?
No?

If the easy way out is to make it an Ubuntu-only machine, that is tempting, but that is also giving up, which I tend not to do.

What tool is it, and/or what command(s) is it, that I can edit the BIOS/MBR line that enables Drive 1 / Primary-Slave (D: drive) to also be visible to the BOOT sequence?

Thanks,


- Mick

[oldfred]

Did you follow smurphy_it's earlier suggestion.

If misjumpered or 40 wire cable with cable select setting, maybe somehow it works and BIOS do not see it. It is normal that it will not be seen if BIOS does not see it.


with pictures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_ATA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA
Some history:
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCS-c.html
If you have the more modern 80 conductor 'cable-select' type of IDE ribbon cables, make sure the blue plug is connected to the motherboard, the grey plug is plugged into your slave drive (if any), and the black plug is plugged into your master hard drive.

If you have the old kind of IDE ribbon cables, check that one hard disk is set as 'master' and the other is set as 'slave' if there's another drive on the same cable.