Adding a Seperate Hard Drive

[WebThingy]

'Ello,

I want to add my second hard drive (not a partition) which is already in my machine but not showing up in Xandros.

I have read a few different methods of doing this on this forum and elsewhere, but all of them that I found talk about partioning and not just adding a second drive with no partitions, after you've already got Xandros running.

Anyone able to walk me through this?

[antidrugue]

Can you post the output of

fdisk -l

(as root)

and of

cat /etc/fstab

?

So the new hard drive is not partitioned yet? Can you clarify that please?

[WebThingy]

Output for fdisk -l

WRATH:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1          65      522081   82  Linux swap
/dev/hda2   *          66        9729    77626080   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sda: 82.3 GB, 82348277760 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 10011 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       10010    80405293+   7  HPFS/NTFS

Output for fstab

WRATH:~# cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab -- static file system information
# auto generation: on
# generated by: /sbin/etcdev2fstab
#
# NOTE: to make this file readable, it has been formatted for 132 columns
#
#<device>                              <mountpoint>      <fstype>  <options>                                   <dbg> <pass>
/dev/hda2                               /                 reiserfs  rw                                    0     0
/dev/cdroms/hdc                         /media/cdrom0     iso9660   ro,nosuid,nodev,exec,user,noauto,async,unhide   0     0
/dev/cdroms/hdd                         /media/cdrom1     iso9660   ro,nosuid,nodev,exec,user,noauto,async,unhide   0     0
/dev/floppy/0                           /media/floppy0    auto      rw,nosuid,nodev,exec,nouser,noauto,async        0     0
proc                                    /proc             proc      rw                                    0     0
usbfs                                   /proc/bus/usb     usbfs     rw,devmode=0666                                 0     0
/dev/hda1                               none              swap      sw                                    0     0

The second drive was already in my machine and being used when I ran Windows, when I switched to Linux it installed the OS on my C drive (windows reference), but I can't see my second drive (D drive).
The Xandros Express install didn't give me an option to do any partioning with my drives.

Let me know if that made sense, lol

[antidrugue]

...

Disk /dev/sda: 82.3 GB, 82348277760 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 10011 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       10010    80405293+   7  HPFS/NTFS

Ok, I see here that you have a SATA (or SCSI) drive formatted in NTFS. If I remember correctly you said you don't have Windows anymore on that computer. Is that correct?

So if you want to use the drive, you will need to format/partition it in a more Linux friendly filesystem.

So is it ok to format it? Do you have any bakcups to do first? Is there anything on that drive you want to keep?

[WebThingy]

Oh, ok I see it there. NTFS. These outputs are slooowly strating make more sense to me.

RIght, I am only running Xandros Linux, I threw my Windows disc in the trash yesterday.

Nope, everything I had on that disk I backed up onto DVD-R's before I installed Xandros, so it's cool to partition that disk. I just don't know how to, lol.

[truoc444]

personally i'd install qtparted. it's a graphical disk partitioner/formatter. the interface is similar to partition magic. makes partitioning pretty easy. then just set up a mount point, and add it to /etc/fstab and it should automatically mount from then on.

[WebThingy]

I went to the qtparted site, download the deb file, used Xandros Networks to install it, had errors. So, I removed it.

I then used Xandros Networks to find a partitioning/formatting software and came across something simply called "parted" which says ti does the same thing.
So I installed it.
Now I have no clue how to use it as I can't figure out how to open it.

I found the files using a search, but I don't know what to do next. I downloaded the documentation but you have to run commands to open it, and they aren't working, the read me file gives the commands, but I keep getting "no such file or directory".

I have another post titled "Launching Programs" about this same problem with other softwares.

help.

please.

[antidrugue]

Isn't qtparted simply in synaptic? Going to websites to download software is a Windows habit. Most of software you are going to use is already in Xandros repositories.

So, try the one in synaptic.

Anyway they mention on qtparted site that the .deb file is outdated.

Good luck.

[WebThingy]

Man, I don't know what Synaptic is and I see nothing about it on my machine, if you can point me to it I'll gladly try it.

I only go to the websites when Xandros Network doesn't have the software.

Even so, I did install a program called "parted" through Xandros network which says it does the same thing as "qtparted" and it installed. Like I said though, I don't know how to open the program to use it.
I can't even get the documentation to open as it requires command lines that aren't working.

I saw it said "outdated" but it was the only deb file there, so I tried it.

If I could just get this second drive up and running I'd be in good shape.

[antidrugue]

Man, I don't know what Synaptic is and I see nothing about it on my machine, if you can point me to it I'll gladly try it.

Ok ok. Maybe synaptic is just not installed yet on your computer. You can probably install it (in a console) like that:

apt-get install synaptic

(as root).

As for partitioning, I don't use qtparted myself. I use an app called fdisk or sometimes cfdisk.

You can use it (in a console, there is not GUI for those) like that (as root):

cfdisk /dev/sda

Once in cfdisk, you [ Delete ] the present partition(s). Then make a [ New ] one of [ Primary ] type. You just enter the default size (which is the total size of the hard drive).

You can then choose the [ Type ] of the partition, which is 83 (Linux). Then [ Write ] the changes and [ Quit ].

Then you need to reboot (very important) so the changes takes effect.

Once you are back, enter the console again, and (as root), format the filesystem:

mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1

Then you can mount the filesystem like that:

mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /home/yourself/the_big_one

or any other mount point of your liking (like /home/yourself/the_big_one). Change "youself" with your actual username and "the_big_one" with a empty folder that actually exist. The mount point must exist.

Tell me if it works, then we'll modify /etc/fstab so the drive gets mounted automatically upon boot.

Similar to what I just wrote, there is also an how-to here (for adding new drives):
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...ini-howto.html