Try fdisk in expert mode. Use "c" to set the number of cylinders to
14593 and use "h" to set the number of heads to 255. If you try to set
the number of cylinders to 232514, that must fail because of what I said
in a previous email ("65535 is the maximum"). Since you may have no more
than 65535 cylinders, you must have more than 16 heads in order to have
the product come out to cylinders*heads*sectors*512 = 120 GB. I don't
think it's necessary for there to be much connection between what you say
is the number of cylinders and heads and how the disk is actually
internally organized. So the numbers I gave could work independent of what
is really there.
Once you have set the numbers of cylinders and heads, partition the
disk in non-expert fdisk mode with, say, 1 partition with all cylinders.
Then try "mkfs /dev/hdd1". If you must reboot, try first running "lilo"
with lilo.conf not specifying any hdd parameters. I expect that to work,
but if it doesn't, the next thing I'd try would be to add the line
append="hdd=14593,255,63" to /etc/lilo.conf, run lilo again, and reboot.
And if that doesn't work, let's hope there's someone listening who is more
expert than either of us.
On Mon, 24 Jun 2002, Laxman Buneti wrote:
> Hi steven,
>
> Thanks for the info.No luck here.I entered the cylinder (original value is
> 232514) in lilo.conf.But the fdisk -l /dev/hdd still shows the number of
> cylinders as 65553.I tried to set it using the xpert mode in fdisk but it
> doesnt allow me(it says out of range cylinder value).
>
> SO letting it to be 65553,I tried to create 1 partition of 65553 cylinders
> and quit the fdisk using w command.
>
> Next step, I typed "mkfs /dev/hdd1", this is what I get.
>
> /*////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
> mke2fs 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
> mkfs.ext2: Device size reported to be zero. Invalid partition
> specified,
> or
> partition table wasn't reread after running fdisk, due to
> a modified partition being busy and in use. You may need to
> reboot
> to re-read your partition table.
> ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// */
>
> I rebooted the system but the same thing comes up.
>
> One more thing,"fdisk -l /dev/hdd" gives the following information,
>
> /*/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
>
>
> Disk /dev/hdd: 16 heads, 63 sectors, 65535 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 bytes
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/hdd1 4061214 3927021 2079850472+ 83 Linux
> Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary:
> phys=(1023, 255, 63) should be (1023, 15, 63)
>
> ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////*/.
>
> Do you have an idea regarding that "phys" word?.
>
> I would like share more information which might help us find a solution.I
> had 1 more new 120gb disk and I tried it on my other linux machine(by the
> way this is the server with NIS and NFS running.Do I have to shut off all
> the services before working with a new drive?).So coming back, the same
> thing happens with this new disk on a new machine.SO I believe there is
> something wrong with the way Iam working with the machines but not the
> drives.
>
> I tried reinstalling the drive physcially many times and some times the
> machine reads the drive space correctly and sometimes not.When it read
> correctly, I made a single partition of the entire disk(i.e 120 gb) and
> tried to create file system but the same message appears(i.e invalid
> partition....).
>
> Thanks again,
> Laxman.
>
> > Another idea: fdisk has an expert option, x. The expert menu allows
> >you to change the number of cylinders ("c") and the number of heads ("h").
> >If somehow "mkfs /dev/hdd" messed up those numbers, you should be able
> >to restore them with fdisk.
> >
> >On Sun, 23 Jun 2002, Steven J. Yellin wrote:
> >
> > > I'd be surprised if "mkfs /dev/hdd" permanently damaged the hard
> > > drive. So if you tried to repartition it, but fdisk found only 33 GB
> > > available after originally finding 120 GB, I have no explanation for
> > > what changed.
> > >
> > > I have a WD1200BB 120 GB disk for which "fdisk -l /dev/hdb" shows
> > >
> > > Disk /dev/hdb: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 14593 cylinders
> > > Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes
> > >
> > > I multiply 14593*16065*512 to get 120031511040, which is 120 GB.
> > > In view of "CHS=65535/16/63" in your dmesg output, I guess a similar
> > > calculation for you based on "fdisk -l /dev/hdd" would show 33.8GB.
> > > If your computer really thinks the disk has only 16 heads, that would
> > > make it impossible to get beyond 33.8 GB because 65535 is the maximum
> > > allowable number of cylinders.
> > > It might solve your problem to specify the disk geometry at boot
> > > time or in an append command in lilo.conf:
> > > hdd=14593,255,63
> > > if your disk is like mine. Or replace "14593,255,63" with what the
> > > numbers of cylinders, heads, and sectors are supposed to be on your
> >disk,
> > > instead of what "fdisk -l /dev/hdd" shows.
> > >
> > > On Mon, 24 Jun 2002, Laxman Buneti wrote:
> > >
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > Thanks for the information.I think I typed "mkfs /dev/hdd" instead of
> >"mkfs
> > > > /dev/hdd1" initially when I was making a partition of 100 gb.
> > > >
> > > > Anyway I deleted all the partitions on /dev/hdd and still my disk
> >shows only
> > > > 33 gb space(originally it was 120 gb).Do you think the command "mkfs
> > > > /dev/hdd" messed up the ard drive. Any help on this?
> > > >
> >...
> >
> >--
> >Steven Yellin
> >
> >
> >
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>
>
>
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