[SOLVED] 2 TB drive seen in BIOS, not seen in Mint

[carlcarl]

I have a Linux box I use for file storage. I built it a few years ago with another distro (PCLOS), and it worked well enough. It was configured with a 40gig HD for the OS, and a RAID card running 5 500 gig drives for data (roughly 2 TB usable space). This showed up in PCLOS as a single ~2TB drive, as it should.

Recently the OS drive died. Complete failure. I replaced the drive and installed Mint 10 Julia (because it fits on a CD). My BIOS sees the RAID drive as usual, but Mint does not see the RAID drive at all.

What's worse, it did at first. For about a day. Now it does not see it at all. Hmmm. Grain of salt time. My wife says it did, but I don't recall...

Following directions in another thread, I've run the following commands with these results:

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carl@NAS2 ~ $ sudo parted /dev/sda print
Model: ATA WL40GBSATA (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 40.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system     Flags
 1      1049kB  38.3GB  38.3GB  primary   ext4            boot
 2      38.3GB  40.0GB  1688MB  extended
 5      38.3GB  40.0GB  1688MB  logical   linux-swap(v1)

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carl@NAS2 ~ $ mount
/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/carl/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=carl)

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carl@NAS2 ~ $ sudo lshw -C disk
[sudo] password for carl: 
  *-disk                  
       description: ATA Disk
       product: WL40GBSATA
       physical id: 0.0.0
       bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
       logical name: /dev/sda
       version: 10.0
       serial: WL12H200759236
       size: 37GiB (40GB)
       capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
       configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=00086bb3
  *-cdrom
       description: CD-R/CD-RW writer
       physical id: 0.1.0
       bus info: scsi@1:0.1.0
       logical name: /dev/cdrom
       logical name: /dev/cdrw
       logical name: /dev/scd0
       logical name: /dev/sr0
       capabilities: audio cd-r cd-rw
       configuration: status=nodisc
carl@NAS2 ~ $ sudo blkid -c /dev/null
/dev/sda1: UUID="95de4c47-c165-4628-9afc-2b0835bb90ad" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sda5: UUID="80c58916-4aca-496f-ad79-7d8705faddd8" TYPE="swap" 

While I don't pretend to understand all of that output (I'm a newbie), I do see a distinct lack of references to the 2 TB drive that is seen by the BIOS.

Where do I go from here?

[carlcarl]

I should add this info:

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CPU[-Single core Intel Celeron D (-UP-) clocked at 3457.707 Mhz-] Kernel[-2.6.35-22-generic x86_64-] Up[-2:12-] Mem[-427.2/2008.7MB-] HDD[-40.0GB(6.5% used)-] Procs[-148-] Client[-Shell-] inxi[-1.4.12-] 

[Michael42]

Does the array show up if you type:

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sudo parted -l

and/or

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sudo fdisk -l

(Lowercase L on both)

Also, what Motherboard and Raid card are you using? It could be a simple BIOS setting or boot order setting that is causing it to be missed.

[carlcarl]

No, it doesn't show up there, either, but in checking just now, I found my BIOS settings are off from what I had set yesterday. I verified all my boot order settings, etc., yesterday, and noticed that the clock was way off. I corrected it, and it's way off again this morning. Also, BIOS is NOT seeing the RAID card today.


Looks like a CMOS battery is dying (I hope). I'll get that corrected before I take up any more of your time! That might be the whole story.

Thanks!

[Michael42]

That would be an easy fix. Let us know if it works out. If not, let me know the MB and Raid card type.

I know that drained CMOS batteries can drive people mad, especially Laptop owners. It's amazing what a buck fifty battery can fix.

[carlcarl]

That was it!

Sorry to be so long posting back - I've been really sick and didn't get to this.


Replaced the CMOS battery, booted up, logged in, and there is my RAID with all my data. Yay!


Nice to know I can lose the OS drive, replace it and install a DIFFERENT OS, and still have my data back.

It's a Netcell Revolution card, BTW. Cheap consumer grade RAID, and no longer made. But it works!


Thanks for the help!


I'm building another NAS soon, and this time I'm going with an enterprise grade card from fleaBay, but I'm glad to know this cheapie is working!

[Michael42]

No prob. Wasn't worried. The more I thought about your last post, the more I was convinced that a new cmos batt would fix it. Now you've got me thinking that I could use a NAS.