[Solved] SATA driver disappeared

[Toroka]

Sorry if it was not a new problem, but I am new in PCLinuxOS and at least to me it is new.

I recently installed 2010 version on my desktop computer. Before installing the system I switched off one of my hard drives. When the install was over on "sda", I switched the other one "sdb" on too. There were no problems at all - at least  at the begining. During fine tuning the system I made my accounts at the Thunderbird too. The local folders of TB I keep at one of the sdb drive's directories. Meantime I also plugged my backup USB drive, too. After a restart, when cheknig my mails with TB,  I realised, that original sdb drive (with my loccal foldelrs) diasppeared and the USB drive got the "sdb" tag. From that time on I am not able to force the system to find my original sdb drive at all.

The system consists of a K8N Gigabyte motherboard, with an AMD processor and NVIDIA chipset. Sda is a Samsung 160 GB, with 4 partitions. Sdb would be a WD 300 GB drive with another 4 partitions.

Any suggestions, how to find the driver? (I tried fdisk -l, computer configuration utility, mount etc., without any success.)

Árpád Török

[coolbreeze]

Hi Toroka, Welcome home, have you checked the cables are plugged back securely? or try them in another socket.

[Toroka]

Hi! I think it should not be a problem, as under BIOS it is visible, only the system dosn't see it. I think I'll have to check with a Live CD, but not now. I have to work. Thanks anyway.

[Toroka]

Sorry guys! It seems it was not a PCLinuxOS system problem, but a BIOS peculiarity. When I enabled the 2nd SATA channel too, the drive became available.

[Toroka]

I was too fast declaring the issue solved. Now I see better when and how this problem appeares.

As I told, I have two built-in drives. A 160 GB with the systems and another 300 GB drive as internal back-up. I also own some USB drives and one of them, a 1 TB Siemens near my desktop computer. When I connected the USD drive on the fly, everything was okay. Restartimg the computer the USB drive takes over the sdb title.

Cheking in the PCLOS Contorl Center under Harware/Disks (I have Hungarian version, so the name may sound different in English one) now I see sda and sdb, the two built in drives. Trying to mount manually, it mounts the 1 TB USB drive.

 

More to follow...

[Was_Just19]

What are the contents of your
/etc/fstab         file?

Do you have your BIOS set to boot from USB?  If yes try changing it.

Or maybe you have a function to list the drives so that USB is listed before the second internal HDD?

[Toroka]

It was not enough to unplug the USB drive. When restarting, I had to change something in the BIOS - now I disabled the 2nd SATA - then PCLinusOS identified the 300 GB drive well. The next step will be to plug another USB drive, in order to see, this confusion with drive letters is valid only for the 1 TB or other USB drives too may confuse the system.

Meantime I read your questions. My answerare:

1. /etc/fstab:

tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sda3 :
UUID=698ba3c1-32e6-404c-9449-e14ddccf57b0 / ext3 defaults 1 1
#Entry for /dev/sda1 :
UUID=4210958010957C1B /media/sda1 ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.UTF-8,umask=000 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sda4 :
UUID=0b90d2db-c4ac-40ec-a0ce-e94442066b3f /mnt/Tartalek ext3 defaults 1 2 none   /proc proc   defaults 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sda2 :
UUID=f8f37c37-02f5-44b5-a803-449ee4af393a swap swap defaults 0 0 none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0

2. BIOS Boot from USB - switched on. I am sure,because I was thinking about switching it off next. (Now I am downloading something, so I may try it later.

3. USB and internal drive listing: I am afraid, I don't understand what kind of listing you mean.

[Toroka]

Do you think, that I have to try manually edit the fstab?

[Toroka]

I made a try for the fstab editing:
"
tmpfs   /dev/shm   tmpfs   defaults   0   0
#Entry for /dev/sda3 :
UUID=698ba3c1-32e6-404c-9449-e14ddccf57b0   /   ext3   defaults   1   1
#Entry for /dev/sda1 :
UUID=4210958010957C1B   /media/sda1   ntfs-3g   defaults,locale=en_US.UTF-8,umask=000   0   0
#Entry for /dev/sda4 :
UUID=0b90d2db-c4ac-40ec-a0ce-e94442066b3f   /mnt/Tartalek   ext3   defaults   1   2
none   /proc   proc   defaults   0   0
#Entry for /dev/sda2 :
UUID=f8f37c37-02f5-44b5-a803-449ee4af393a   swap   swap   defaults   0   0
none   /dev/pts   devpts   defaults   0   0
#Entry for /dev/sdb1
UUID=56ff1076-1df6-461c-a4ed-4e882d73ed72   /media/sdb1   ext3   defaults   0   0
#Entry for /dev/sdb2
UUID=1D4C-17EA   /media/DOKU_ASZTAL   vfat   defaults   0   0
#Entry for sdb3:
UUID=234ba4f4-2eb3-4796-844d-0922fc2654cc   /dev/Eza_plusz   ext3   defaults   0   0
#Entry for /dev/sdb4
UUID=0b35b15e-1015-43d5-be59-31cb6bd60030   swap   swap   defaults   0   0

"
Will it work like that? What do you think?

[Was_Just19]

OK, your fstab lists only partitions on the drive that was present when you installed.

I would suggest the following ......

Unplug the USB drive

Go into PCC - Local Disks  and select the 2nd internal HDD, and set mount points for each of the partitions. Be sure also to set the permissions as you wish.

When Done it should ask permission to write the changes to the fstab file. Yes.

Still with the USB unplugged, reboot the machine and check that all your partitions are mounted as you wish.

Now, booting with the USB attached, but not booting from it, check to see if the internal drives are as they should be.

Hope that works for you.

Regards.

[Toroka]

USB drive unplugged. PCC/local disks/sdb opened - only thing I was able to do was to change the permissions. It did not ask for mounting point. Reboot. sdb disappeared. Mounting of sda went also. The only partition I may see is the one with the system. PCC says only sda is available. In Dolphin when trying to mount sda partition an error message appears. The core of the message is:
"org.freedesktop.Hal.device.Volume.Unknownfaliure: Cannot open /etc/fstab. Checking etc directory, fstab disappeared. Meantime there was another message there, like authorization was asked for users keep auth. or forget auth. Selecting keep - nothing happened. Selecting other, message disappeared. Now let's see, what happens if I restart the computer.

[Toroka]

Restart - total crash. Was not able to mount the file system. The same in safe mode.
Restart with CD in live mode. PCC/Local disks - both drives are present, but swapped. (sda became sdb)
Fortunately, because of yesterday's editing try I have a copy of the original fstab. Copied back to /etc. Restart. Everything is okay - but I do not see sdb. :-)

Error message:

[Toroka]

I was incapable either to paste image, or to attach file.
So the message looks something like this: You are currently authorised to configure system-wide settings...You can give up this..Keep auth. ... give up auth. ...

[Toroka]

Restart/BIOS unused SATA switched off/Pos system start/PCC/local disk/both disks are present - good order/mounting sdb partitions to /mnt directories seem okay/permission to write fstab - given/restart
System starts/sdb disappeared again. /mnt directories are there but empty.
fstab looks like this:

"
#Entry for /dev/sda3 :
UUID=698ba3c1-32e6-404c-9449-e14ddccf57b0 / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdb2 :
UUID=1D4C-17EA /mnt/DOKU_ASZTAL vfat defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdb3 :
UUID=234ba4f4-2eb3-4796-844d-0922fc2654cc /mnt/Eza_plusz ext3 defaults 1 2
#Entry for /dev/sda4 :
UUID=0b90d2db-c4ac-40ec-a0ce-e94442066b3f /mnt/Tartalek ext3 defaults 1 2
# Entry for /dev/sdb1 :
UUID=56ff1076-1df6-461c-a4ed-4e882d73ed72 /mnt/WD_1 ext3 defaults 1 2
#Entry for /dev/sda1 :
UUID=4210958010957C1B /mnt/windows ntfs-3g umask=000,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
#Entry for /dev/sda2 :
UUID=f8f37c37-02f5-44b5-a803-449ee4af393a swap swap defaults 0 0
"
"
[root@localhost ~]# mount -a
mount: special device UUID=1D4C-17EA does not exist
mount: special device UUID=234ba4f4-2eb3-4796-844d-0922fc2654cc does not exist
mount: special device UUID=56ff1076-1df6-461c-a4ed-4e882d73ed72 does not exist
"
 

[Was_Just19]

coolbreeze suggested earlier that you check the cable connecting the HDD to the motherboard, or even try changing it to a different SATA socket on the board.

Have you done that?