Can't fdisk newly installed disks
Jerry McAllister
jerrymc at msu.edu
Tue Aug 14 11:12:12 PDT 2007
On Mon, Aug 13, 2007 at 11:32:40PM -0700, Simon Gao wrote:
> Jerry McAllister wrote:
> > On Mon, Aug 13, 2007 at 05:38:04PM -0700, Simon Gao wrote:
> >
> >
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I am running into some problem with fdisk newly installed drives.
> >>
> >> >From boot message, these drives are found without problem:
> >>
> >> da3 at mpt0 bus 0 target 2 lun 0
> >> da3: <IFT A12U-G2421 347D> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-3 device
> >> da3: 160.000MB/s transfers (80.000MHz, offset 127, 16bit), Tagged
> >> Queueing Enabled
> >> da3: 2048000MB (4194304000 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 261083C)
> >> da4 at mpt0 bus 0 target 2 lun 1
> >> da4: <IFT A12U-G2421 347D> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-3 device
> >> da4: 160.000MB/s transfers (80.000MHz, offset 127, 16bit), Tagged
> >> Queueing Enabled
> >> da4: 2048000MB (4194304000 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 261083C)
> >> da5 at mpt0 bus 0 target 2 lun 2
> >> da5: <IFT A12U-G2421 347D> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-3 device
> >> da5: 160.000MB/s transfers (80.000MHz, offset 127, 16bit), Tagged
> >> Queueing Enabled
> >> da5: 670790MB (1373777920 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 85513C)
> >>
> >> There are device files in /dev:
> >>
> >> crw-r----- 1 root operator 4, 14 Aug 13 17:14 /dev/da3
> >> crw-r----- 1 root operator 4, 15 Aug 13 17:14 /dev/da4
> >> crw-r----- 1 root operator 4, 16 Aug 13 17:14 /dev/da5
> >>
> >>
> >> However, when trying to fdisk one of drives, I got following error:
> >>
> >> # fdisk -BI da5
> >> fdisk: cannot open disk /dev/da5: No such file or directory
> >>
> >> sysintall failed also.
> >>
> >> The system runs FreeBSD 5.2.1-RELEASE.
> >>
> >> Any help is appreciated.
> >>
> >
> > Did you try doing a dd(1) if some blocks of zeros to the drive
> > before doing the fdisk. On some older FreeBSD - don't remember
> > which - I had trouble with some brands of SCSI disks and writing
> > some zeros to it seemed to make it work. I don't know why or even
> > why I first tried it. But it is simple enough to be worth giving
> > it a try to see if anything improves.
> >
> > dd if=/devf/zero of=/dev/da5 bs=512 count=1024
> >
> > ////jerry
> >
> >
> This is what I got:
>
> # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da5 bs=512 count=1024
> dd: /dev/da5: Operation not permitted
>
OK. sorry that didn't help.
> If I use sysinstall --> config --> fdisk to partition /dev/da5, I got
> following warning:
>
>
> WARNING: A geometry of 85513/255/63 for da5 is incorrect. Using ???
> ???a more likely geometry. If this geometry is incorrect or you ???
> ???are unsure as to whether or not it's correct, please consult ???
> ???the Hardware Guide in the Documentation submenu or use the ???
> ???(G)eometry command to change it now. ???
> ??? ???
> ???Remember: you need to enter whatever your BIOS thinks the ???
> ???geometry is! For IDE, it's what you were told in the BIOS ???
> ???setup. For SCSI, it's the translation mode your controller is ???
> ???using. Do NOT use a ``physical geometry''.
>
>
> The cylinder, heads and sectors match what's found during boot up.
>
> Simon
>
I am sure it has nothing to do with those geometry messages. I always
get them and never have had to do anything about it.
So, back to square n where n=don't know.
Hopefully someone else will have something useful to say.
////jerry
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