New 500 GB drive Not accessible through Fdisk

[NetProwler]

One of our office NFS servers running software RAID had failed. To circumvent the humongous backup issue, I added a new 500 GB SATA drive into another perfectly functioning Server running Fedora Core 3 ( Yes I am always in the past). I expected to issue a fdisk command to partition the new drive. But I can't see the new drive through fdisk. The server has IDE hard drive originally. Is there something I miss here to make Fedora Core 3 see the 500 GB ?

I would be grateful for any light thrown on this. I have Googled to no avail. The Server shows the new drive in BIOS.

[angilina]

I also had this problem. It seems like the new drives may not be accessible via Fdisk. If I am correct, Fdisk cannot create or view NTFS partitions. [may be I am wrong]

I personally do the partition in my HD [250GB] via attaching it to another PC or via booting XP via old HD and then do the partition via XP HD tool.

I had tried Fdisk with few new HDs, but it never worked. I even tried few other scripts but they also failed to help me in this regard.

[mushroom]

If you are running Fedora Core 3 it is reasonable to assume you are doing it on older hardware?

I would first look at MB to see if the BIOS supports that size of drive, if the MB can not see it, the OS no matter what it is can't.

[DannyHerian]

Hi NetProwler sounds like your Linux Kernal version doesn't support the SATA chipset, maybe its worth installing Ubuntu instead. I have SATA drives running with no problems on that version of Linux.

[Ladana]

It appears that you haven't loaded the drivers for the SATA controller, sometimes this works automatically, sometimes it doesn't.
Find out the chipset with [root]# lspci and manually add the driver with [root]# modprobe. However, you might be stuck because Fedora Core 3 is not really up-to-date on sata support and certain chipsets are still lacking. I would first check /proc/ and see if there is any indication that the system recogniced the sata hardware.

[z28com]

If you want a really cool RAID that's 100x easier to mess with, I would highly consider a Drobo unit. You can mix and match different SATA drives in it.

Watch this demo on how easy it is. Data Robotics, Inc. (http://www.drobo.com/resources/drobodemo.php)

I think this unit will work with LINUX as well. Two people I know have bought them and love them. I have a Pogoplug (http://www.pogoplug.com/) on order and I am wanting to plug the Drobo onto this.

The combination of the Pogoplug and the Drobo will allow me to have a very compact independent file network to put on my LAN which will also allow me to easily share any of the files with people over the Internet... straight through the firewall.

[deepsand]

Just a heads-up that there is now a new "Computer Assistance" forum for Technical Questions & Answers at http://www.webproworld.com/#computer-assistance , with various sub-forums, fo which Hardware - WebProWorld (http://www.webproworld.com/hardware/) would be here appropiate.

No longer does one need to try to figure out which forum might be best for getting help with a tech. problem.

[Clint1]

Since all you need to do is format it, why not just hook it up to some PC, right click the drive and "Format"?

[NetProwler]

Thanks a ton for all who answered.

@mushroom - BIOS "sees" the new drive. I could successfully install Fedora 7 in a similar 500 GB SATA drive in a similar Mobo in another server. So this rules out any issue with hardware.

@DannyHerian - Thanks again. I am afraid I can't change the OS or the server.

@Ladana - Thanks. I will probe on this.

@deepsand - Thank you for that pointer.

@Clint1 - I need to mount the 500 GB disk in the same Server.

More Ideas ?

[Clint1]

@Clint1 - I need to mount the 500 GB disk in the same Server.
Yeah that I figured. But what's stopping you from doing what I said then putting it back in the server, since all you want is it formatted. I'm not familiar with that OS, but with the Windows OS's you don't even need to format, the OS CD will automatically do it for you.

What size was the previous IDE HD?

[NetProwler]

I need to format the drive to ext3 file system so that the existing OS can make use of the extra large capacity. The existing IDE drive is a 120 GB drive.

[wige]

What version is your Linux kernel? Some versions of fdisk cant recognize drives of over 64GB. Other systems are limited in terms of partition size depending on the underlying filesystem. I have a suspicion you may need to do the formatting on another computer, as mentioned above, and possibly partition the drive to a size your system will recognize.

[NetProwler]

Thanks wige. My kernel version is 2.6.9. The trouble is this version of Fedora is so old that I can't even update much without a major work. I will format the drive in another computer and hope that it will work here.

[z28com]

Never mind about the Drobo... I just ran into this. Not good for a business if it crashes.

Customer Reviews OfData Robotics Drobo External FireWire 800 & USB 2.0 Robotic Storage Array (Hard Drives NOT included) - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16822240010)

You will need a ton of tape backups.

Sorry.

[NetProwler]

z28com - No issues. For now I would have to get the high capacity drive going. I would have to wait for a Sunday to work on the server.

[z28com]

I meant using a ton of tape backups if you own a Drobo. If that thing dies, you lose everything.

[NetProwler]

As a follow up, I am writing this. I have formatted the 500 GB hard drive in another "modern" Fedora core 9 system and placed it in the existing server. No Joy. Still the OS doesn't "see" the new drive. I searched again and found this - The Kernel 2.6.9-1.667 i686 doesn't have support for SATA drives. I will have to build/patch a new Kernel based on the chipset in the motherboard.

[Doc]

The Kernel 2.6.9-1.667 i686 doesn't have support for SATA drives.

That's surprising! Too bad you can't run Linux...much easier to upgrade the kernel. Good luck!

[NetProwler]

Thanks Doc. Looks like I may need that luck in plenty. It is very frustrating to search for drivers.
There is another option too - I can install the latest Fedora in the new drive and copy over all the data from the old drive. But whatever I had built over the years will be lost for ever.

[Doc]

I suspect that the best (well, at least the quickest and easiest) might be one already suggested by wige. Your kernel is most probably unable to recognize anything approaching 500 GB. Partitioning it into 64 GB chunks, and then compartmentalizing your backups into those categorized positions may well be your easiest method.

[NetProwler]

I am afraid the kernel doesn't recognize the SATA drive. It is happy to work with 120 GB drive through IDE.

Thanks Doc for being with me all the while.

[TrafficProducer]

DOS Fdisk cannot create or view NTFS partitions.

DOS FDisk is limited to the size it can handle and repots incorrect sizes (It's an old Program)

There is a program called Super FDisk (http://www.ptdd.com/manual2.htm) which can do more storeage.

For Linux Kaspersky Rescue Disk (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Kaspersky-Rescue-Disk.shtml) may help.

Sorry but BIOS still may be an issue, yes it may show the drive, AutoSence it, in BIOS but it still may fail to work, try changing some setting, but make a carfule note of the settings now.

[TrafficProducer]

It may be best to disconnect all other dirives before doing anything.

Reconnect drives after.

Make notes of all BIOS settings first:

Try

BIOS > Intergated peripherals > On-Chip ATA Devices> RAID Mode set to IDE

SFISK, (super-fdisk see above), Fdisk, format, (sfdisk is quite quick) etc.

Put BIOS back if needed.

Another way after BIOS set to IDE is to Install Windows on the drive, This should Format that drive for you... You can remove Windows from it later.

Remove windows> Reconnect drives boot into Windows old drive, not the newly installed windows 500Gb drive.

From here format the 500Gb drive...

[weegillis]

Timely technical advice. OP appears to have been resolved. Thread closed.