Second hard disk unrecognized

[giacomella]

Hi all!
I'm a new debian user, but with a little experience on other distros (mainly suse).
I installed my etch system at work, on a new dual boot pc, and everything went ok. After a few weeks I added a second hard disk (identical to the first installed), and formatted it with FAT32 to create an exchange location for data between the two systems. On windows I found the second disk to work properly, while debian can't recognize it at all (no sdb entry in /dev).
Can anybody help me understanding what's wrong with the system?
Is it true that it might depend on a bug in the 2.6.18-4.i686 kernel?
Thanks a lot!

[chadders]

Hey,

first can I see the output you get from the following commands.

mount
ls /dev/

'mount' shows currently mounted devices whilest 'ls /dev/' shows what devices you have on your computer (even if they are not mounted). These two commands will also prove whether linux is actually detecting the hard drive.

You might also consider making a new directory for the hard drive you are wanting to mount.

mkdir /media/<some-name i.e. windows>

Good Luck.

[giacomella]

Hi chadders!

Ok, here they are:

$mount
/dev/sda2 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
tmpfs on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
procbususb on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620)
/dev/sda8 on /home type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda7 on /prod type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda6 on /usr type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /windows type ntfs (ro,noexec,nosuid,nodev,gid=100,umask=0002)

$ls /dev
adsp     loop6      ptype     sndstat  tty32  tty60           usbdev2.1_ep81
audio    loop7      ptypf     stderr   tty33  tty61           usbdev3.1_ep00
bus      lp0        ram0      stdin    tty34  tty62           usbdev3.1_ep81
cdrom    MAKEDEV    ram1      stdout   tty35  tty63           usbdev4.1_ep00
cdrom1   mapper     ram10     tty      tty36  tty7            usbdev4.1_ep81
cdrw     mem        ram11     tty0     tty37  tty8            usbdev5.1_ep00
console  mixer      ram12     tty1     tty38  tty9            usbdev5.1_ep81
core     net        ram13     tty10    tty39  ttyp0           usbdev6.1_ep00
disk     null       ram14     tty11    tty4   ttyp1           usbdev6.1_ep81
dsp      nvidia0    ram15     tty12    tty40  ttyp2           usbdev7.1_ep00
dvd      nvidiactl  ram2      tty13    tty41  ttyp3           usbdev7.1_ep81
dvd1     parport0   ram3      tty14    tty42  ttyp4           vcs
dvdrw    port       ram4      tty15    tty43  ttyp5           vcs1
fd       ppp        ram5      tty16    tty44  ttyp6           vcs2
fd0      psaux      ram6      tty17    tty45  ttyp7           vcs3
full     ptmx       ram7      tty18    tty46  ttyp8           vcs4
hde      pts        ram8      tty19    tty47  ttyp9           vcs5
hdf      ptyp0      ram9      tty2     tty48  ttypa           vcs6
hpet     ptyp1      random    tty20    tty49  ttypb           vcs7
initctl  ptyp2      rtc       tty21    tty5   ttypc           vcsa
input    ptyp3      sda       tty22    tty50  ttypd           vcsa1
kmem     ptyp4      sda1      tty23    tty51  ttype           vcsa2
kmsg     ptyp5      sda2      tty24    tty52  ttypf           vcsa3
log      ptyp6      sda3      tty25    tty53  ttyS0           vcsa4
loop     ptyp7      sda5      tty26    tty54  ttyS1           vcsa5
loop0    ptyp8      sda6      tty27    tty55  ttyS2           vcsa6
loop1    ptyp9      sda7      tty28    tty56  ttyS3           vcsa7
loop2    ptypa      sda8      tty29    tty57  urandom         xconsole
loop3    ptypb      shm       tty3     tty58  usbdev1.1_ep00  zero
loop4    ptypc      snapshot  tty30    tty59  usbdev1.1_ep81
loop5    ptypd      snd       tty31    tty6   usbdev2.1_ep00

As you can see, I have already mounted the windows system partition (XP -> NTFS) under /windows, and I have prepared an /exchange folder to mount sdb1 to.
But I have no sdb to mount... !

I hope you could help me...

[devils casper]

Please post the output of 'fdisk -l' command.

[giacomella]

Hi devils_casper!
Here for you (but I'm afraid it would't be a good new):

$fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       20397   163838871    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2           20398       30123    78124095   83  Linux
/dev/sda3           30124       38913    70605675    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5           30124       31096     7815591   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6           31097       33528    19535008+  83  Linux
/dev/sda7           33529       35960    19535008+  83  Linux
/dev/sda8           35961       38913    23719941   83  Linux

Any idea?

[chadders]

it appears to me that sda3 recognised.

To mount simply do this:

mount <device> <desired location>

e.g.
mount /dev/sda3 /media/sda3

I chose against mounting sda5 as it appears to be your swap.

I hope I have said the right thing, devils_casper can correct me if I am wrong lol. Unfortunately I do not know how to make the devices load at boot. Someone else may be able to enlighten us both whilst I search the internet for the answer.

[devils casper]

Debian is not recognizing second Hard Disk.

If Windows OS is recognizing Second Hard Disk, it means Cables are plugged-in properly and its not disabled in BIOS.
Check the output of 'dmesg | less' command. Does it show any error message related to sdb?

[giacomella]

Ok, here are the answers:
1.
The sda3 is an extended partition within which i created other partitions such as sda5 to sda8: they all work properly.
2.
The output of the dmesg command follows: I think a couple errors about scsi1 are shown in the first part of the output message, but similar errors are shown on scsi2 and scsi3, so I really don't know... (furthermore, I am not too familiar with low level system messages, although I am practice of partitioning and hardware...)

ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: version 2.00
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: MAP [ P0 -- P1 -- ]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.2[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 177
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.2 to 64
ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xEC00 ctl 0xE882 bmdma 0xE400 irq 177
ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xE800 ctl 0xE482 bmdma 0xE408 irq 177scsi0 : ata_piix
ata1.00: ATA-7, max UDMA/133, 625142448 sectors: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
ata1.00: ata1: dev 0 multi count 16
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
scsi1 : ata_piix
ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0xE807
  Vendor: ATA       Model: ST3320620AS       Rev: 3.AA
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.5: MAP [ P0 -- P1 -- ]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.5[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 177
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.5 to 64
ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xD400 ctl 0xD082 bmdma 0xC880 irq 177
ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xD000 ctl 0xCC02 bmdma 0xC888 irq 177
scsi2 : ata_piix
ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0xD407
scsi3 : ata_piix
ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0xD007
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:05:03.0[A] -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 58
ohci1394: fw-host0: OHCI-1394 1.0 (PCI): IRQ=[58]  MMIO=[feaff000-feaff7ff]  Max Packet=[2048]  IR/IT contexts=[4/8]
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ahci 0000:02:00.0: version 2.0
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:00.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 169
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:02:00.0 to 64
ahci 0000:02:00.0: AHCI 0001.0000 32 slots 2 ports 3 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode
ahci 0000:02:00.0: flags: 64bit ncq pm led clo pmp pio slum part
ata5: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xF8908100 ctl 0x0 bmdma 0x0 irq 169
ata6: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xF8908180 ctl 0x0 bmdma 0x0 irq 169
scsi4 : ahci
ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023]  GUID[0011d800013143e1]
ata5: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
scsi5 : ahci
ata6: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)

Several lines ahead it is present the following section about sda, properly working.

Probing IDE interface ide3...
SCSI device sda: 625142448 512-byte hdwr sectors (320073 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
SCSI device sda: 625142448 512-byte hdwr sectors (320073 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
 sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 <<6>hde: ATAPI 52X DVD-ROM drive, 256kB Cache, UDMA(33)
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
 sda5 sda6 sda7 sda8 >
sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda

So I have two questions for you: is it possible that after an extended partition on sda there cannot be any other primary partition, even if on sdb? And more: before installing the second hd I used my pen drive, which was mounted on sdb: does the system keep memory of previously installed disks, conflicting with the new hardware configuration?
I am bewildered...

[devils casper]

is it possible that after an extended partition on sda there cannot be any other primary partition, even if on sdb?

Its possible to create Primary Partition after Extended Partition and sda has nothing to do with sdb. Both represents separate Hard Disks and It doesn't matter what type of Partition Structure both disks have,

before installing the second hd I used my pen drive, which was mounted on sdb: does the system keep memory of previously installed disks, conflicting with the new hardware configuration?

No. System doesn't reserve Device Names.

Are you sure that Second Hard does not have any problem? Is it enabled in BIOS? Are you Dual Booting?

[giacomella]

Are you sure that Second Hard does not have any problem? Is it enabled in BIOS? Are you Dual Booting?

Yes, the second hard disk works properly in windows: I tried to create folders, copy to and retrieve files from it before posting this thread, to ensure it was a software problem I couldn't face by myself. Persuaded everithing was ok on hardware level, I didn't examined BIOS.

Your last question made me uncertain about all, and I finally entered BIOS setup mode: although the disk was successfully recognized and set, I found it connected as SATA3!!!
I shut down immediately and opened the pc: the disk was installed by a computer technician on the third SATA motherboard connector, automatically setting it as SLAVE and leaving the SATA2 connector empty.
I don't know exactly why, but I had the pulse to move the connector from SATA3 to SATA2 port, rebooted and *WOW* everithing worked!!!

I must confess I feel a bit stupid after this, but the different behaviour of windows and linux about the disk management left me quite lost, and far away thinking it could be an hardware connection problem (is it?!? Not sure...). By the way, I'm grateful to you for your help in persisting on the problem, and for the hit suggestion which let me discover the problem.
I hope I could be of any help to you.
Thanks a lot!