Very Computer

Dear experienced Linux user,

I have an IDE hard drive (Western Digital, Caviar 21000, 2100 Cylinders,
16 Heads, 63 sectors : 1081 Mb) MS-DOS formatted, bootable, with BIOS
translation activated by a proprietary software (similar to "OnTrack
Disk Manager", I believe). This drive is the first and only MS-DOS
partition I have, and thanks to the BIOS translation I can get
MS-DOS to see the whole Gigabyte on it. It is hard drive number 1.

I then have a second hard drive, number 2, of about 250 Mb. I have it
in Linux native format. I boot Linux from it with a floppy disk, no LILO.

I would like to get Linux to "see" the first drive (/dev/hda), but
if I mount it under a /dos directory of Linux:
(mount -t msdos /dev/hda /dos) or (mount -t msdos /dev/hda1 /dos)
I get a message such as: "bad superblock on /dev/hda" or something
like that, and no mount is carried out.

I have tried to read variou HOWTO's and other documentation, but
things seem to me not very clear...HELP!!!

*****How can I get Linux to see a 1Gb MS-DOS hard disk?****

Thank you so much, from a green Linux user!

John

_____________________________________________________________________

 Marine Environment Unit, TP 272                      * * *
 Institute for Remote Sensing Applications          *       *
 Joint Research Centre - European Commission       *    EU   *
 I-21020 Ispra (VA)    - ITALY                      *       *
 Tel:  ++39 (0)332 78.9876                            * * *
 Fax:  ++39 (0)332 78.9034                      
_____________________________________________________________________

Dear experienced Linux user,

I have an IDE hard drive (Western Digital, Caviar 21000, 2100 Cylinders,
16 Heads, 63 sectors : 1081 Mb) MS-DOS formatted, bootable, with BIOS
translation activated by a proprietary software (similar to "OnTrack
Disk Manager", I believe). This drive is the first and only MS-DOS
partition I have, and thanks to the BIOS translation I can get
MS-DOS to see the whole Gigabyte on it. It is hard drive number 1.

I then have a second hard drive, number 2, of about 250 Mb. I have it
in Linux native format. I boot Linux from it with a floppy disk, no LILO.

I would like to get Linux to "see" the first drive (/dev/hda), but
if I mount it under a /dos directory of Linux:
(mount -t msdos /dev/hda /dos) or (mount -t msdos /dev/hda1 /dos)
I get a message such as: "bad superblock on /dev/hda" or something
like that, and no mount is carried out.

I have tried to read variou HOWTO's and other documentation, but
things seem to me not very clear...HELP!!!

*****How can I get Linux to see a 1Gb MS-DOS hard disk?****

Thank you so much, from a green Linux user!

John

_____________________________________________________________________

 Marine Environment Unit, TP 272                      * * *
 Institute for Remote Sensing Applications          *       *
 Joint Research Centre - European Commission       *    EU   *
 I-21020 Ispra (VA)    - ITALY                      *       *
 Tel:  ++39 (0)332 78.9876                            * * *
 Fax:  ++39 (0)332 78.9034                      
_____________________________________________________________________

Quote:>Dear experienced Linux user,
>I have an IDE hard drive (Western Digital, Caviar 21000, 2100 Cylinders,
>16 Heads, 63 sectors : 1081 Mb) MS-DOS formatted, bootable, with BIOS
>translation activated by a proprietary software (similar to "OnTrack
>Disk Manager", I believe). This drive is the first and only MS-DOS
>partition I have, and thanks to the BIOS translation I can get
>MS-DOS to see the whole Gigabyte on it. It is hard drive number 1.
>I then have a second hard drive, number 2, of about 250 Mb. I have it
>in Linux native format. I boot Linux from it with a floppy disk, no LILO.
>I would like to get Linux to "see" the first drive (/dev/hda), but
>if I mount it under a /dos directory of Linux:
>(mount -t msdos /dev/hda /dos) or (mount -t msdos /dev/hda1 /dos)
>I get a message such as: "bad superblock on /dev/hda" or something
>like that, and no mount is carried out.

Perhaps you should try to use the correct partition number -
/dev/hda1 I'd suppose. /dev/hda would be the disk, not the partition.

Michael
--

**************************************************************************
* "Real computer scientists don't program in assembler. They don't write *
*  in anything less portable than a number two pencil."                  *

Yes, right, but even with:
mount -t msdos /dev/hda1
I get the same problem (e.g. error message and no mount)
I have now been advised to upgrade my linux kernel to version 1.3.X
which should recognize Disk Managers such as Ontrack Disk Manager.
I'll let you know.

Thanks for the interest, JP

_______________________________________________________________________

 Marine Environment Unit, T.P. 272             tel: ++39 (0)332 78.9876
 Institute for Space Applications              fax:             78.9034  
 Joint Research Centre - European Commission  
 I-21020 Ispra (VA)    - ITALY

This might sound strange, but what's your linux partition?

I'm wondering if it's possible that you somehow got the master and
slave designations backwards.  In that case /dev/hda1 would be your
_linux_ disk (and it would not be mountable as a "msdos" paritition)
and /dev/hdb1 would be your DOS disk.

I don't know if the standard EPROM loader is smart enough to boot from
a slave drive.  I can boot from my slave DOS disk, but I pass through
LILO (on the master disk on the first IDE controller) first.

--
Bear Giles                     For every complex problem there is an

                                                       -- H L Mencken

Quote:

>Dear experienced Linux user,

>I have an IDE hard drive (Western Digital, Caviar 21000, 2100 Cylinders,
>16 Heads, 63 sectors : 1081 Mb) MS-DOS formatted, bootable, with BIOS
>translation activated by a proprietary software (similar to "OnTrack
>Disk Manager", I believe). This drive is the first and only MS-DOS
>partition I have, and thanks to the BIOS translation I can get
>MS-DOS to see the whole Gigabyte on it. It is hard drive number 1.

>I then have a second hard drive, number 2, of about 250 Mb. I have it
>in Linux native format. I boot Linux from it with a floppy disk, no LILO.

>I would like to get Linux to "see" the first drive (/dev/hda), but
>if I mount it under a /dos directory of Linux:
>(mount -t msdos /dev/hda /dos) or (mount -t msdos /dev/hda1 /dos)
>I get a message such as: "bad superblock on /dev/hda" or something
>like that, and no mount is carried out.

>*****How can I get Linux to see a 1Gb MS-DOS hard disk?****

I've had the same problem loading Linux on large hard drives. I could be
wrong, but the whole reason, as I can see it, that you can't access the DOS
partition is that it's being driven by that software rocket thingy.
According to your CMOS, you probably have a different size drive than is
actually the case, right? Well, with Dos, that's fine. It boots the driver
and is off running. Linux, on the other hand, only knows about the drive
what BIOS tells it. All the data on the drive has been put there in a
different format than is reported by the BIOS. You might try backing up the
drive then seeing if Linux will recognize the disk freshly formatted and
without OnTrack. It'll be a lot smaller, but you'll know if it can
work,assuming that is the problem. If that does solve the problem, invest in
a new bios. If you can't do that, the BIOS manufacturer might offer an ISA
upgrade card. I think AMI has one for about $40.
        Of course, I could be all wrong :) Good Luck!

I had similar problems with OS/2.  I found that the disk manager program
was not compatible with anything, except DOS.  I had to low-level format
my HD to get rid of that program.  I used the manufacturer's formatting
utility, of course.  It was necessary to install a hardware solution,
namely a Promise Technologies card with a BIOS chip on it.  Now my
harddrive is recognized at bootup before any operating system is loaded.

Andrew