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**dibl** · Jul 10, 2010, 05:28 AM

Re: unallocated hard drive, but Kubuntu runs fine

Depending on how your boot system works (Grub legacy? Grub 2? Something else?) it might not be serious, but personally I would be very worried about the integrity of the partition table and master boot record on that hard drive. While you have a booted OS working, you would be very wise to carefully back up every bit of important data to another storage device.

**tjk** · Jul 10, 2010, 12:55 PM

Re: unallocated hard drive, but Kubuntu runs fine

Originally posted by dibl

Depending on how your boot system works (Grub legacy? Grub 2? Something else?) it might not be serious, but personally I would be very worried about the integrity of the partition table and master boot record on that hard drive. While you have a booted OS working, you would be very wise to carefully back up every bit of important data to another storage device.

And then... how should I go about trying to fix the problem?

**tjk** · Jul 11, 2010, 11:09 PM

Re: unallocated hard drive, but Kubuntu runs fine

not getting much of a response to this problem...

I've done some work on trying to figure out the answer to this problem, and I'm thinking that all my partitions may be hidden. Is this possible? If so, how do I unhide them? (Could Grub2 be hiding them so I can't use a LiveCD?)

**toad** · Jul 11, 2010, 11:33 PM

Re: unallocated hard drive, but Kubuntu runs fine

My first thoughts: the root of the problem could literally be anything.

As dibl suggested - back up is the most important step. Also print out your

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

. And while you're at it, download and burn a system rescue CD which contains test disk and could be used to double check your disc integrity. There are also the badblocks and e2fsck programmes which you may want to whiz through.

**tjk** · Jul 12, 2010, 12:07 AM

Re: unallocated hard drive, but Kubuntu runs fine

I'm all backed up, it's just a matter of fixing things... if possible.

Here's the output of sudo fdisk -l :

Disk /dev/sda: 251.0 GB, 251000193024 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30515 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2527a2c7

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 184 1477948+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 12986 29809 135138780 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 30258 30516 2077148 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 185 12985 102819461+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 185 3832 29296875 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 3832 12985 73522176 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

**dibl** · Jul 12, 2010, 08:40 AM

Re: unallocated hard drive, but Kubuntu runs fine

So you've got 4 primary partitions, and one of them is "Extended", and within that you have two logical partitions. It looks fine, as far as that goes.

Have you made any changes in the BIOS, regarding the SATA or IDE channel settings? Have you tried any other Linux Live CDs? I would recommend Parted Magic and sidux as two that I'm familiar with, that are pretty good at finding your hardware. In general, the Linux OS (either installed on a hard drive or running from a Live CD), gets its clues about your CPU, memory, and disk drives from BIOS. So it's odd that the Grub boot system for Kubuntu appears to be able to "see" the partitioning on the disk, but your Puppy Live CD doesn't.

My concern was (and is) with the integrity of the hard drive, specifically the area where the partition table is. If there is some kind failure in the media itself, or in the controller electronics, it's probably not "fixable" in the usual sense -- no one is going to give you a bash command to straighten it out.

But hopefully it is something innocuous -- maybe you've got the SATA channel set to AHCI mode, and Puppy doesn't do that, for example. Just guessing ....

**toad** · Jul 12, 2010, 08:47 AM

Re: unallocated hard drive, but Kubuntu runs fine

Hm, could it be that it is an old puppy which hasn't got a clue about ext4 (am I right in thinking that kubuntu uses ext4 as default?).

Try any of the aforementioned live CDs (system rescue, parted magic, sidux) and check whether they read your drive correctly. If so, you prolly have an ancient puppy lying around which hasn't got ext4 capabilities.

**milflyboy** · Jul 16, 2010, 03:35 AM

Re: unallocated hard drive, but Kubuntu runs fine

Originally posted by dibl

My concern was (and is) with the integrity of the hard drive, specifically the area where the partition table is. If there is some kind failure in the media itself, or in the controller electronics, it's probably not "fixable" in the usual sense -- no one is going to give you a bash command to straighten it out.

Don't forget about SMART if you're ever wondering about physical health. Look for the 'gsmartcontrol' package in live distros. I believe Knoppix includes it, but not positive.

Originally posted by toad

Hm, could it be that it is an old puppy which hasn't got a clue about ext4 (am I right in thinking that kubuntu uses ext4 as default?).

An unrecognized file system shouldn't prevent it from reading the partition table, though. I'd think that at worst it should just claim that an ext4 partition was a corrupted ext2/3. Plus, it wouldn't affect the swap partition.

**tjk** · Jul 16, 2010, 02:31 PM

Re: unallocated hard drive, but Kubuntu runs fine

Thanks for your input milflyboy. I have tried a number of things (eg low-level hd scan) to solve the problem, but no luck yet. I will install gsmartcontrol and see if that will help.

I continue to do regular backups, and as of yet have not resorted to a reinstall because everything seems to work find within Kubuntu. (I have run other LiveCDs and the result is very unpredictable... some work, some don't... and it has nothing to do with the age of the LiveCD... it almost seems that all of a sudden something in my hardware has changed and some distros can work while others don't). It's weird.

**dibl** · Jul 16, 2010, 03:18 PM

Re: unallocated hard drive, but Kubuntu runs fine

Did you look at the SATA mode in BIOS? If it is set to AHCI, try setting it to "Legacy IDE" and see if your Puppy CD is able to see the partition table.

**tjk** · Jul 16, 2010, 11:45 PM

Re: unallocated hard drive, but Kubuntu runs fine

Originally posted by dibl

Did you look at the SATA mode in BIOS? If it is set to AHCI, try setting it to "Legacy IDE" and see if your Puppy CD is able to see the partition table.

Oh yes, I did check out the option, and all I can do is turn SATA on or off... there is no AHCI or Legacy IDE setting anywhere in my BIOS.
I just thought of something else... maybe it's related... ever since I installed Kubuntu 10.04 something a little weird is happening with my hdrive. When I power off my computer the hard drive light stays permanently on and I'm unable to start my computer using the power button... I have to unplug the power cord, plug it back in and then push the power button. Could this be related... it's a long shot... (I thought it was just an ACPI issue.)

**tjk** · Jul 20, 2010, 12:20 PM

Re: unallocated hard drive, but Kubuntu runs fine

UPDATE: I've spent hours reading up on this problem. My latest idea is that the hard drive geometry is not aligned. Should the geometry of the bios agree with the geometry of fdisk -l ? My understanding is, yes. But which is the correct one? And will I loose data if I change either one of the geometries?

**dibl** · Jul 20, 2010, 12:33 PM

Re: unallocated hard drive, but Kubuntu runs fine

Originally posted by tjk

all I can do is turn SATA on or off... there is no AHCI or Legacy IDE setting anywhere in my BIOS.

That is a bit surprising -- is it an older computer? Have you checked to ensure that the BIOS version that you have is the latest for that system?

On the "drive geometry" question, there is a coming challenge for all operating systems, as hard drives transition from 512-byte sectors to 4096-byte sectors:

http://www.johannes-bauer.com/linux/wdc/?menuid=3

http://www.osnews.com/story/22872/Li...or_Hard_Drives

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2888

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9395614

But, unless you recently installed one of these new WD drives, that is not likely to be your problem. If you do decide to do experiments with alignment of the 4K sectors to the partition boundary, by all means back up your data first, as it could be lost in the process.

**vinnywright** · Jul 20, 2010, 12:48 PM

Re: unallocated hard drive, but Kubuntu runs fine

Originally posted by tjk

I just thought of something else... maybe it's related... ever since I installed Kubuntu 10.04 something a little weird is happening with my hdrive. When I power off my computer the hard drive light stays permanently on and I'm unable to start my computer using the power button... I have to unplug the power cord, plug it back in and then push the power button. Could this be related... it's a long shot... (I thought it was just an ACPI issue.)

that dosent sound good for shure.

do you have a diferent drive to put in the box and see if this keeps happening?

could be the drive the power suply the power switch or mobo gowing south!!

I have a box that will shutdown power off ....then just power back on by it's self........I think it's the switch it's self. !!

VINNY

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unallocated hard drive, but Kubuntu runs fine

unallocated hard drive, but Kubuntu runs fine

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