Harddisk change

[paco]

Hi Linux guys,

I have an odd question maybe.

On my computer i have the following hardware:

1. 60 GB Harddisk - running winXP
(only because i need it for some school-apps)
2. 8 GB running SuSE 7.3
3. CD-ROM
4. CD-ReWriter

a few days ago i made the following configuration:

Pri.Master : 8GB Pri.Slave : CD-RW

Sec.Master : 60 GB Sec.Slave : CD-R


After that booted the computer and installed SuSE 7.3

It worked. It booted, i configured sound card etc. all ok.


A day after that, when i wanted to do some little linux, i
turned on the computer and the computer did'nt found the
8GB harddisk.

This is a hardware problem, i am aware of that. I tried some
swapping of the drives and that works. The configuration now is:

Pri.Master : 8GB Pri.Slave : 60 GB

Sec.Master : CD-RW Sec.Slave : CD-R


When i boot in linux it is no problem, only that the 60 GB harddisk
is not accessable through the blockdevice /dev/hdb

for example : fdisk /dev/hdb does not give antything

trying to mount any /dev/hdb(x) fails.

Mounting tells an error : no device or address (or something like that)

With SuSE 7.3 Distro, there are two binaries hwinfo and hwscan

When i run hwinfo --disk i see an summary of hard disks.

The weird thing is : the 60 GB Harddisk is listed there. The
difference is that the 8GB is summarized with some more lines:

driver : ide-disk
Geometry : ??????

and another line, but i can't memorize that one now.

Those three rules are not listed under the 60 GB, and that is
my problem i think. When my harddisk is present but no driver
is on it, it is logical i can't access it.

So my question is how to solve this. How to get the drive told
to load that driver.

modprobe ide-disk : gives an error that the driver does not exist

insmod ide-disk : does'nt work either

searched modules.conf int /etc/ for text : 'hd' but can't find anything.

I think it is in some bootscript maybe, but i don't know where to
look.

Tnx in advance,

Paco

[JP83]

1. Generic note make your 60GB at primary master
2. I donno what type mobo you have but check is bios update available
3. How your bios see the hd, will it (both hd's) work fine when using Windows

[paco]

A general note i would like to make.

The configuration as it was installed worked fine

just after the swap of the 60 GB and the CD-RW it did'nt
work anymore.

the bios is new and the drives are detected good.

the weird thing is that the 60 GB worked fine before the swap.

I heard something of another guy that it could be something
with an scsi-emulated layer for the CD-RW that was on hdb
before the swap.

paco

[JP83]

Scsi emulation very likely is your problem. Are you using lilo or is it grup. check your /etc/lilo.conf or /etc/grup.conf for line like
append "hdb=ide-scsi" (or something like that) and if lilo change that line to
append "hdc=ide-scsi"
and run command lilo if grup that line (it's not a line) edit same way and run command grup (?) (i'm not sure howto run grup i use lilo).

[mdwatts]

When you switched your Linux HD from P/S to P/M, did you also make the necessary changes in your bootloader config and /etc/fstab?

[paco]

Yes mdwatts, i changed fstab and checked all existence of the
block devices.

as i told earlier, someone told me about scsi-emulation.

jp83 -> what you are telling is exact what the other guy said.

Not that i believed that guy, but i can't try right now.

First time when i can try is monday.

The thought of posting was to get as many reactions so i could
try some.

Now with your confirm about the scsi-emlulation as a friend told
already to i make a big change that it will fix my problem.

tnx dudes.