[cobalt-users] 20 gig drives are running (well), only one problem

[jale@xxxxxxxxxx]

Boy, I hope I am not the most hated guy on the block for opening the can of 
SPAM about selling RAQs. I may put up a website resellercatalog.com that I 
own and I'll list anyone on this list that want to be listed as selling 
RAQ's. I'll let the list know if I do it.

Anyone who was following the thread about dd and rsync and putting in 
bigger drives, I did it tonight. And without Gerald's WONDERFUL assistance, 
I would not be running right now.

RAQ3i - others will probably be different.

The partitions are all primary, not logical in the 1st partition, so the dd 
if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb only copied the 1st of 4 partitions. Here's what we 
did, and below I'll tell about one oddity I still have:

In window #1 - on a 13gig drive (original)
1) /sbin/fdisk /dev/hda
2) at prompt, enter p to print partitions
I left this open to I could see the size of the old partitions (Gerald told 
me to)


In window #2 (on a 20 gig new drive)
1) /sbin/fdisk /dev/hdb - BE SURE YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT DRIVE
2) n - new partition; partition #1, type = primary,
start cylinder = 1; end cylinder 4064 (we used this for a 2 gig partition)
3) n - new partition; partition #2, type = primary,
start cylinder = default; end cylinder xxxx (I made sure it was bigger than 
the original)
4) n - new partition; partition #3, type = primary,
start cylinder = default; end cylinder yyyy (I made sure it was bigger than 
the original)
5) n - new partition; partition #4, type = primary,
start cylinder = default; end cylinder - max size (default)
6) t - to change the partition type of the 2nd partition to linux-swap (I 
think that's what it was called)
	tell it partition 2, type = 82 (the others are 83, linux)
7) w - to write partition info
8) q to quit

Then we formatted each drive:
/sbin/mkfs -t ext2 /dev/hdb1
/sbin/mkfs -t ext2 /dev/hdb2
/sbin/mkfs -t ext2 /dev/hdb3
/sbin/mkfs -t ext2 /dev/hdb4

Then we dd'd to each drive
dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hdb1 	(took about 20 minutes)
dd if=/dev/hda2 of=/dev/hdb2 	(went quickly)
dd if=/dev/hda3 of=/dev/hdb3 	(went quickly)
dd if=/dev/hda4 of=/dev/hdb4 	(this one took over an hour)

I then took out both drives, reset jumpers so my new 20 gig was the 
primary, put in another 20 gig as the secondary. Repeated the entire 
procedure. I now have 2 20gig drives that are basically mirrored.

Now I have an oddity, that really makes sense if you think about it ... and 
what will fix it? Will fsck with some good parameters do it?

If you look at the drives in fdisk, the partitions are just what you set 
them to, but if you do a df on them, the sizes and free block counts are 
the same as the original 13 gig drive. So the dd copied over that stuff, 
but did not destroy the partitioning itself.

The machine is working great right now, but I need to do something to get 
it to recognize the rest of the space on the new drives ?????????  I did 
not risk doing any type of fsck without some guidance from someone who 
knows MUCH more than I do about this, you know, these machines are just a 
can of SPAM (they have 4 more parts).

FOOD FOR THOUGHT so you don't get caught like I did:
1) the mother board has all pins in the IDE cable, most cables have a plug 
on one of the middle pins and the mother board and drives have that pin 
removed. The cable that came with the machine did not have the extra drive 
connector so I had to put in a new cable - after cutting out the *blocker* 
in the cable to fit the mother board. Also, one of the new drives was WAY 
tight on the cable, first time in years, I pulled a cable right out of its 
connector - the ISP happened to have ONE cable (an ATA100) sitting on a 
work bench, so I was saved from driving back to the office with the system 
all taken apart. Bring a spare cable, be sure you have 3 connectors total.

2)The machine had the extra power plug, no problem there

3) The RAQ3i has a bracket that holds the hard drive. The space I was 
putting in my drive did not have a spare bracket to use. Fortunately - if 
you turn your drive upside down, it fits in perfectly where it belongs with 
no hold down. It cannot shift in any direction unless you turn your machine 
upside down. After 2 hrs of running, my drive was cool since the 
electronics were open to are - if it was not upside down there could have 
been heat issues. Also - by turning it upside down, the directions were 
perfect for the cable on the 2 opposing drives, no twists were needed. That 
was convenient.

4) If you here an awful grinding noise coming out of your RAQ, and you 
think OH NO, I'd better get that hard drive replaced before I go to sleep 
tonight, relax, it may be the fan. It is binding a little and making a real 
grinding noise (like a head crash).

Anyone know where I can get a fan? I'm going to check a local electronics 
store that is one of these places that can match about anything (Lashen 
Electronics, Denville, NJ if anyone needs anything odd they can't find).

Hope this is helpful to someone ... and if anyone has any ideas on my df 
vs. fdisk I'd like suggestions.

Thanks,
Jale