My day, a one-act play.
Dec. 28th, 2011 12:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselking[Voiceover: In The Past]
Linux: I am out of disk space, woe.
Me: New hard drives, ho!
[Scene: A desk. With a computer on it. And me.]
BIOS: Love the new hard drives, boss!
Linux: I don't understand those drives, they aren't partitioned.
Me: Partition them!
Linux: Okay, but I don't understand those drives, they aren't partitioned.
Me: Dammit. GParted, get in here!
GParted: SIR REPORTING FOR DUTY SIR! WHOOOOOOOO!
Me: Parition and format these drives!
GParted: SIR WHAT DRIVES SIR?
Me: [facepalm] GParted, go get me a version newer than 2005.
GParted: SIR UPDATED! OH, THOSE DRIVES! YES SIR! PARTITIONING AND FORMATTING THEM NOW! GUNG HO.... DONE! SIR!
Me: Those drives are partitioned, but not formatted.
GParted: SIR WHAT DRIVES, SIR?
Me: Oh, shut up. BIOS!
BIOS: Love the new hard drives, boss. They really bring the awesome.
LiveCD: Dave's not here, man.
Linux: I can't read those drives. They're partitioned with a size of zero. And no partitions. And an unreadable partition table.
Me: So fix it?
Linux: I can't. Why do you hate me? What drives?
Me: Oi.
[scene change. Lights dim to show time passing]
BIOS: A new version? For me? I LOVE it! Best idea ever, boss. And I still love those nice new hard disks. Whoo, new version, I'm getting my 2010 on!
GParted: SIR THOSE DISKS DO NOT EXIST. THEY ARE PROBABLY COMMUNISTS SIR.
LiveCD: Dave's NOT HERE, man.
Linux: I am writing poetry. About mean people who yell at me for disks that don't make any sense. And those disks have a lousy partition table.
Me: Aw, fuckit. Windows!
[enter Windows 7]
Windows: Oooh, those disks have a lousy partition table.
Me: [speaking with face in desk] Yes, Windows. They do.
Windows: Well, let me fix that for you. How many partitions? What size? Would you like me to format them? I like NTFS, but I'm okay with something else.
Me: Yay! How about something else?
Windows: NTFS OR I WILL CUT A BITCH.
Me:.... hoookay, NTFS it is. I don't care, as long as they're partitioned. Linux can handle mkfs, even if fdisk is apparently too complicated today.
Windows: All done! Partitions made, here's your exact lists, and I even threw in a quick format.
BIOS: Whoooo, I LOVE the new hard disks, boss
Linux: I can't read those drives. They're partitioned with a size of zero. And no partitions. And an unreadable partition table. And squirrels are often cruel to me.
Windows: Those look just fine to me. I can read and write to them, see? Now you try it.
Linux: You're not my mom!
LiveCD: I keep telling you, Dave's not here, man.
[exeunt]
=================================
So, yeah.
dmesg shows the drives showing up just fine, but notes that they're big (1.5TB drives). Still, this shouldn't be a problem - OS is Ubuntu 8.0.4.4. Bios sees the drives just fine. GParted saw the drives *briefly* but not any more. Plugging the drives into Windows using a SATA-to-USB adapter works just fine, lets me partition and format them, etc. The drives work just fine, the BIOS should be able to handle a large disk and is up to date anyway.
"fdisk /l" doesn't show the two new hard disks.
"fdisk /dev/sda" or sdb gives "unable to read /dev/sda". sfdisk shows *ZERO* cylinders. Switching the HDD handling in the BIOS from IDE to AHCI and back doesn't change the behaviour.
The only slightly unusual thing here is that the new drives are SATA, the old disk is IDE. Still, that shouldn't matter! Linux sees all three drives, it just thinks the two new ones are made of garbage.
Edit: Connecting the SATA drive to the linux OS using the SATA-to-USB converter (yes I ran a wire from the inside of the case around to plug into the front of the case STOP JUDGING ME) works. It can see *that* drive, no problem. And a fresh install of Ubuntu can't detect the HDDs, even with the IDE drive is disconnected. So! I think the problem is found: Linux hates SATA.
That's the conclusion I've reached, anyway.
Linux: I am out of disk space, woe.
Me: New hard drives, ho!
[Scene: A desk. With a computer on it. And me.]
BIOS: Love the new hard drives, boss!
Linux: I don't understand those drives, they aren't partitioned.
Me: Partition them!
Linux: Okay, but I don't understand those drives, they aren't partitioned.
Me: Dammit. GParted, get in here!
GParted: SIR REPORTING FOR DUTY SIR! WHOOOOOOOO!
Me: Parition and format these drives!
GParted: SIR WHAT DRIVES SIR?
Me: [facepalm] GParted, go get me a version newer than 2005.
GParted: SIR UPDATED! OH, THOSE DRIVES! YES SIR! PARTITIONING AND FORMATTING THEM NOW! GUNG HO.... DONE! SIR!
Me: Those drives are partitioned, but not formatted.
GParted: SIR WHAT DRIVES, SIR?
Me: Oh, shut up. BIOS!
BIOS: Love the new hard drives, boss. They really bring the awesome.
LiveCD: Dave's not here, man.
Linux: I can't read those drives. They're partitioned with a size of zero. And no partitions. And an unreadable partition table.
Me: So fix it?
Linux: I can't. Why do you hate me? What drives?
Me: Oi.
[scene change. Lights dim to show time passing]
BIOS: A new version? For me? I LOVE it! Best idea ever, boss. And I still love those nice new hard disks. Whoo, new version, I'm getting my 2010 on!
GParted: SIR THOSE DISKS DO NOT EXIST. THEY ARE PROBABLY COMMUNISTS SIR.
LiveCD: Dave's NOT HERE, man.
Linux: I am writing poetry. About mean people who yell at me for disks that don't make any sense. And those disks have a lousy partition table.
Me: Aw, fuckit. Windows!
[enter Windows 7]
Windows: Oooh, those disks have a lousy partition table.
Me: [speaking with face in desk] Yes, Windows. They do.
Windows: Well, let me fix that for you. How many partitions? What size? Would you like me to format them? I like NTFS, but I'm okay with something else.
Me: Yay! How about something else?
Windows: NTFS OR I WILL CUT A BITCH.
Me:.... hoookay, NTFS it is. I don't care, as long as they're partitioned. Linux can handle mkfs, even if fdisk is apparently too complicated today.
Windows: All done! Partitions made, here's your exact lists, and I even threw in a quick format.
BIOS: Whoooo, I LOVE the new hard disks, boss
Linux: I can't read those drives. They're partitioned with a size of zero. And no partitions. And an unreadable partition table. And squirrels are often cruel to me.
Windows: Those look just fine to me. I can read and write to them, see? Now you try it.
Linux: You're not my mom!
LiveCD: I keep telling you, Dave's not here, man.
[exeunt]
=================================
So, yeah.
dmesg shows the drives showing up just fine, but notes that they're big (1.5TB drives). Still, this shouldn't be a problem - OS is Ubuntu 8.0.4.4. Bios sees the drives just fine. GParted saw the drives *briefly* but not any more. Plugging the drives into Windows using a SATA-to-USB adapter works just fine, lets me partition and format them, etc. The drives work just fine, the BIOS should be able to handle a large disk and is up to date anyway.
"fdisk /l" doesn't show the two new hard disks.
"fdisk /dev/sda" or sdb gives "unable to read /dev/sda". sfdisk shows *ZERO* cylinders. Switching the HDD handling in the BIOS from IDE to AHCI and back doesn't change the behaviour.
The only slightly unusual thing here is that the new drives are SATA, the old disk is IDE. Still, that shouldn't matter! Linux sees all three drives, it just thinks the two new ones are made of garbage.
Edit: Connecting the SATA drive to the linux OS using the SATA-to-USB converter (yes I ran a wire from the inside of the case around to plug into the front of the case STOP JUDGING ME) works. It can see *that* drive, no problem. And a fresh install of Ubuntu can't detect the HDDs, even with the IDE drive is disconnected. So! I think the problem is found: Linux hates SATA.
That's the conclusion I've reached, anyway.