Linux cannot use new drive.

[ka77]

Hi ! Linux user for many years. First time i ask for help.
I recently bought a 6TB Western Digital RED.
WD RED Drives are Network-attached storage (NAS) Drives.
I installed Linux mint 20.1 on it. Just like i did with the previous kind of storage drives from WD.
I was able to boot with it the first time.
Now it is impossible.
But the worst part is, i copied some data on the WD RED and with another bootable Linux drive, namely a WD BLUE SSD, i cannot access the data either on the WD RED.
I changed the permissions with sudo CHMOD -R 755
I even open as administrator after that.
I try to open a folder and all i get is a crash and then i have to login into the SSD WD blue again.
Are NAS drives impossible to use as boot with Linux ? My search results say otherwise (???)
Is it a matter of the BIOS ? Do i have to update it ?
Do i have to disable a firmware aspect of the WD RED so that it becomes similar to a WD GREEN or a normal drive ?
Here is a lowdown on the different Western digital drive Categories :
https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2796 ... ed-in-2017
Thanks for your replies.

[karlchen]

Hello, ka77.

WD RED Drives are Network-attached storage (NAS) Drives.
I installed Linux mint 20.1 on it. [...]
I was able to boot with it the first time.
Now it is impossible.

What precisely are the symptoms, which tell you that Linux Mint 20.1 cannot start from the new WD drive?
Which error messages do you read, please?

Best regards,
Karl

[karlchen]

Hello, ka77.

I have got no clear idea what precisely may have caused the first problem, which you encountered, in accessing your new WD harddrive.
Yet, I am afraid that recursively changing access permissionss to 755 to whatever you have applied so may have made things worse, not any better.
By the way, the commandline sudo CHMOD -R 755, as you quoted it here,

1. would be incomplete, because it leaves open to which path you applied it
   (without any path, only an error message would be displayed, no effect at all)
2. would not work, because the command is chmod, not CHMOD. (again, only an error message, no effect at all)

Please, share your Linux Mint system information with us. Details how to do so here: How to post your Linux Mint System Information (inxi report)

Hopefuly with the details, provided by inxi, it will be possible to dig a bit deeper into the details and find out what is wrong.

Best regards,
Karl

[ka77]

Hello, ka77.

I have got no clear idea what precisely may have caused the first problem, which you encountered, in accessing your new WD harddrive.
Yet, I am afraid that recursively changing access permissionss to 755 to whatever you have applied so may have made things worse, not any better.
By the way, the commandline sudo CHMOD -R 755, as you quoted it here,

1. would be incomplete, because it leaves open to which path you applied it
   (without any path, only an error message would be displayed, no effect at all)
2. would not work, because the command is chmod, not CHMOD. (again, only an error message, no effect at all)

Please, share your Linux Mint system information with us. Details how to do so here: How to post your Linux Mint System Information (inxi report)

Hopefuly with the details, provided by inxi, it will be possible to dig a bit deeper into the details and find out what is wrong.

Best regards,
Karl

Hi Karl ! Thanks for the reply.

The message said:
Reboot and Select proper Boot Device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key

So first i updated the BIOS, thinking maybe it was damaged.
But same problem as before when i tried to boot
Even gparted would get stuck
I had to use :
"-GParted Live (Safe graphic settings, vga=normal)"
When i was using gparted i would get
"Mounting dev sda1 on invalid argument"
Then i saw that "/dev/sda1" had an orange triangle with exclamation mark

So i figured maybe the fact that i used gparted before installing Linux 20.1 originally was the problem.
Maybe i messed up the whole SDA, SDA1, SDA2 etc. structure somehow and told linux to install itself the wrong way
I realized the entire situation was probably messed up from the beginning and beyond repair

So finally i decided to erase the whole drive with gparted ad restart from scratch.
This time i reinstalled Linux mint 20.1 without "preparing" the drive with gparted.
Just letting Linux Mint do its thing
Fortunately i had a backup as the original drive i wanted to duplicate.
Years of data could have been lost.
I spent two whole days on this but i learned a lot i think.
Also about the chmod like you mentionned.
Now, after the WD RED was successfully erased with Gparted, i was able to install Linux Mint 20.1 no problem by letting linux do the work.
Everything works fine now.
It boots, can access other drives and and will be able to back up the other drive with it during the night.

Thanks again Karl.

Karim.