2nd drive install in Mandriva

[dataDude]

I recently replaced Windows Server 2003 on my server with Mandriva Linux for testing purposes. In the server I had 2 hard drives, one had the OS in it and the other was just for storage. Is it possible to take that storage hard drive and mount it with everything in tact in Linux? The last thing I want to do is delete everything on it. By the way, I'm also nearly completely new to Linux. Does anyone know the answer?

[doctorgonzo]

Yes, this possible, depending on the file system of that drive. If it is NTFS, you will only get read access to the contents.

[dataDude]

Yes, the other drive is formatted with NTFS. I don't really care if I can only use it in read-only, at least I'd be able to retrieve stuff from it. Do you know how to do this or know of a good resource that can help?

[faulkner132]

Add this line to your /etc/fstab file

/dev/hda1 /media/windows ntfs ro,nls=utf8,umask=0222 0 0

Assuming Windows 2003 is on IDE master, first partition.

[dataDude]

Windows 2003 was the IDE primary master with the storage being the primary slave drive. I'm not trying to dual boot or anything and I don't want to move any of the files to the Linux partition for storage. Won't "/dev/hda1" try to mount the drive on the Linux drive? I'm confused now.

[Ind-PC_student]

Like faulkner132 said but change the partition name to /dev/hdb1

"quote"
/dev/hdb1 /media/windows ntfs ro,nls=utf8,umask=0222 0 0 [example]

For your reference linux drive naming

ATA/EIDE
Disk only
Primary Master = /dev/hda
Primary Slave = /dev/hdb
Secondary Master = /dev/hdc
Secondary Slave = /dev/hdd

SATA/SCSI/Flash Media/Usb drives
Disk only
Disk 1 = /dev/sda
Disk 2 = /dev/sdb
Disk 3 = /dev/sdc
Disk 4 = /dev/sdd

Just remember that partitions will give the drives numbers
example: /dev/hda1 = drive + partition 1

[dataDude]

Do I have to include anything in the mtab file?

[dataDude]

Never mind. With your guys' help and another tutorial I found, I was able to do it. Excellent! Thanks all.

[dataDude]

Due to a partition issue I had with that primary master drive, I had to repartition/reformat the pm. I didn't touch the secondary, but for some reason when I try to mount the drive that was just discussed Linux will tell me that the drive is already mounted or is busy/consuming resources (even on bootup reading through fstab), but it will not allow me to see what's on the drive. Funny thing is that apparently it will allow me to save stuff to the "mounted" drive. At first when I saw that it scared me because I thought that meant I had deleted the partition or screwed something else up with the drive itself. Then I tried it on a Windows machine and everything worked perfectly there. I tried everything you guys told me to do and the stuff I found on that other tutorial, but I keep getting errors. Have you guys ever dealt with that kind of thing?

[faulkner132]

Try deleting the mount point referred to in your fstab file, create a new mount point, then point your fstab to that. The mount point in my post above was /media/windows.

[dataDude]

I've been trying everything I can think of, still not working. I keep getting that message "mounting partition /dev/hdb1 in directory /media/windows failed (Device or resource busy)." I tried doing everything you said and keep getting the same thing. What the heck is going on here?

[faulkner132]

Open your /etc/fstab file, change /media/windows to /media/new_mount

Now try this at the command prompt:

umount /media/windows
mkdir /media/new_mount
mount -a

[dataDude]

What would be the difference between using "windows" and "new_mount"? Seems to me I'd still get the same error message, but what do I know right. The only real difference I see between last time when the mount worked and this time when it didn't was that last time that drive wasn't mounted in the first place; it was a later addition. This last time I had the drive connected and it may have screwed something up. That or possibly the fact that I hadn't installed it this last time on cold boot (that's been some known causes for some past Windows issues for me). I'm going to reinstall it this time like I did it the first time and see what happens. If it doesn't work out this time then I'll be back. Thanks for the tips thus far, guys, 'preciate it.

[dataDude]

K, well, I disconnected the 2nd drive from the computer and reinstalled Mandriva. Then I went in to mount the drive again and this time I wasn't denied the action of mounting. However, it still wouldn't show the contents of the drive. So I messed with the mount command a little and harddrake. This time I got no error messages of any kind anywhere. I put the mount code into fstab and rebooted and then finally I was able to see the contents of the drive. Sweet! So now I know how to avoid this crap next time. Again, thanks for your help. Without your tips, kiss my luck goodbye .