[HLUG] HD problem

[Julian Robbins]

Graham Cole wrote:
> Thanks Julian...I have seen in Ubuntu the package backuppc which looks
> very useful though needs some studying to understand it. However I want
> to boot safely from the new hard disk then get access to the old one,
> whatever package I use for backing up data files. So how can I get
> access to the second master disk? Should I do a different cable
> connection to get it as slave to the primary master disk?
> What I have done is arrange the jumpers of the disks as master and
> slave, then they are connected to the motherboard by 2 connectors on the
> same flat cable. My BIOS, and in Ubuntu the device manager, both see two
> master disks! Booting goes from the first disk but then the second
> master is not seen and can't be accessed. I suppose it would be
> accessible if it were the slave. 
> This is new ground for me and I need a map. 
>   Thanks for any help you can offer...
>   
Hi Graham

Although you CAN put two devices on the same IDE channel, ie a HDD and a 
CDROM, its generally a bad idea especially if its two HDD's.

I have seen this before in Linux where hanging two HDD's from the same 
channel (cable) results in only seeing one device.

So please instead, unhook one HDD and change it to a master too.

This will make it that you have a device /dev/hda and a /dev/hdc

I'm a touch confused when you say that once the BIOS and ubuntu can see 
both HDD's as a master and slave on the slave channel, that 'booting 
goes from the from disk but the second master is not seen and cant be 
accessed'. Can you elaborate a bit on this please ?

Its possible that your suspect drive

Backuppc is good, but quite complicated, I have used it extensively, but 
it takes a bit of setting up.

Once HDD's start failing you can get unpredictive results. It may be 
that the disk controller is seen, but the actual disk partitions are 
possibly corrupt. There are disk utilities that can help here.

Your trying all the right things tho'

Julian



> Graham
>
> On Sat, 2007-06-16 at 16:51 +0100, Julian Robbins wrote:
>   
>> Julian Robbins wrote:
>>     
>>> Graham Cole wrote:
>>>       
>>>> On Sat, 2007-06-16 at 12:22 +0100, Andrew Hodgson wrote:
>>>>  
>>>>         
>>>>> On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 10:11:34 +0100, you wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>    
>>>>>           
>>>>>> thanks Andrew for the several ideas below. In the first place the
>>>>>> warning was given during the boot process and said:
>>>>>> SMART failure predicted on Primary Master:
>>>>>> Warning:Immediately back-up your data and replace your hard disk 
>>>>>> drive.
>>>>>> A failure may be imminent.
>>>>>>             
>>> This may be a bit of a useless idea but if you just want to copy 
>>> everything including the OS to a new working HDD, Acronis Image is 
>>> excellent and very easy to use.
>>>
>>> It takes you thru all the details with a GUI. (you just boot from CD).
>>>
>>> But you do have to pay for it - around £30 .
>>>
>>> I have a copy if you want to wait till the LUG meeting.
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> Julian
>>>       
>> And of course I should have mentioned there's some Open source 
>> alternatives such as G4U, partimage which work great but are more 
>> difficult to use.
>>
>> Julian
>>     
>