[SOLVED] Unplug Storage HDD=No Boot

[yankee495]

OK,

I have a SSD as sda that is all one partition and is bootable Win7. This is physical drive one in the computer.
I have a SSD as sdb that has / and /home on it. Bootable Mageia. This is physical drive two.
I have a HDD as sdc that is a Win7 drive that I used to boot on and is still bootable if you select it as a boot device at BIOS. This is drive three.

What I done was install a SSD and put Win7 on it with it being the only drive hooked up so it is stand alone, first drive.
Then I installed Mageia on the second SSD which is where grub is. This allows booting to the old HDD with Win7. Or you can boot the Win7 SSD or Mageia SSD.
The old HDD is the third physical drive in the system. It is making a clicking noise in Win7 and stalls the computer. Something is wrong but it seems to work fine in Linux...no clicking problem. I want to just unplug it so it don't go out before I get another one to replace it.
So when I unplug it and select to boot from the second SSD I get the full boot menu, and Mageia will start to boot. Then hangs at starting home.
After stalling a bit it says failed (aborted) to renumber drives etc. Here is what is strange.

# Entry for /dev/sdc1 :
UUID=8612ece5-255b-4d3e-8ebe-c7c66988f534 / ext4 acl,discard,relatime 1 1
# Entry for /dev/sdc6 :
UUID=7c3ffa94-54fd-47b5-b9a0-c308c79132da /home ext4 acl,discard,relatime 1 2
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom auto umask=0,users,iocharset=utf8,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda1 :
UUID=DE72CD2C72CD09EB /media/win_c ntfs-3g defaults,umask=000 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdb1 :
UUID=FEA64E68A64E220F /media/win_c2 ntfs-3g defaults,umask=000 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda2 :
UUID=78BACED6BACE9054 /media/win_d ntfs-3g defaults,umask=000 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda6 :
#UUID=f728e18d-6441-48eb-9d5b-1f8bf38c1154 swap swap defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdc5 :
#UUID=c017c0d2-f6d2-47bc-a051-9e7a2b273a3e swap swap defaults 0 0

The third drive is the HDD and in Partition management shows it as sdc but in fstab it is listed as sda2. The order is wrong.

Device: sdc
Size: 931GB
Name: Seagate Technology 1000524AS


I should be able to unplug the third drive as it has no system files or links to it and should not be physically in front of the other drives to cause a reorder...it should be able to disappear. I've been on this one for a long time and can't get it.

I'm as confused as a guy can get.

Any ideas?

[doktor5000]

OK,

I have a SSD as sda that is all one partition and is bootable Win7. This is physical drive one in the computer.
I have a SSD as sdb that has / and /home on it. Bootable Mageia. This is physical drive two.
I have a HDD as sdc that is a Win7 drive that I used to boot on and is still bootable if you select it as a boot device at BIOS. This is drive three.

What I done was install a SSD and put Win7 on it with it being the only drive hooked up so it is stand alone, first drive.
Then I installed Mageia on the second SSD which is where grub is. This allows booting to the old HDD with Win7. Or you can boot the Win7 SSD or Mageia SSD.

The old HDD is the third physical drive in the system. It is making a clicking noise in Win7 and stalls the computer. Something is wrong but it seems to work fine in Linux...no clicking problem. I want to just unplug it so it don't go out before I get another one to replace it.

So when I unplug it and select to boot from the second SSD I get the full boot menu, and Mageia will start to boot. Then hangs at starting home.

After stalling a bit it says failed (aborted) to renumber drives etc. Here is what is strange.

# Entry for /dev/sdc1 :
UUID=8612ece5-255b-4d3e-8ebe-c7c66988f534 / ext4 acl,discard,relatime 1 1
# Entry for /dev/sdc6 :
UUID=7c3ffa94-54fd-47b5-b9a0-c308c79132da /home ext4 acl,discard,relatime 1 2
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom auto umask=0,users,iocharset=utf8,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda1 :
UUID=DE72CD2C72CD09EB /media/win_c ntfs-3g defaults,umask=000 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdb1 :
UUID=FEA64E68A64E220F /media/win_c2 ntfs-3g defaults,umask=000 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda2 :
UUID=78BACED6BACE9054 /media/win_d ntfs-3g defaults,umask=000 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda6 :
#UUID=f728e18d-6441-48eb-9d5b-1f8bf38c1154 swap swap defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sdc5 :
#UUID=c017c0d2-f6d2-47bc-a051-9e7a2b273a3e swap swap defaults 0 0

The third drive is the HDD and in Partition management shows it as sdc but in fstab it is listed as sda2. The order is wrong.

Mount point: /media/win_c2
Device: sda1
Volume label: SSD1
DOS drive letter: C (just a guess)
Type: NTFS-3G
Size: 111GB (99%)
Mounted

Mount point: /
Device: sdb1
Type: Journalised FS: ext4
Size: 37GB (33%)
Mounted

DISABLED SWAP sdb5 here.

Mount point: /home
Device: sdb6
Type: Journalised FS: ext4
Size: 70GB (63%)
Mounted

Device: sdc
Size: 931GB
Name: Seagate Technology 1000524AS

I should be able to unplug the third drive as it has no system files or links to it and should not be physically in front of the other drives to cause a reorder...it should be able to disappear. I've been on this one for a long time and can't get it.

I didn't put it in code tags because cross referencing the partitions with fstab seems easier layed out. I'm as confused as a guy can get.

Any ideas?

There are multiple issues here.

• your post is about a rather easy problem, but by not using code tags, or clear markup, and using different sources of information
  with different layout and differing grades of information, makes it rather unclear, complex and possibly difficult ot understand.
  -> I've changed the layout and re-structured it. Only kept your original version as quote, to show the difference.
• the comments in fstab are static, once written they won't change IIRC. So the comments and the actual device names may differ
  -> use blkid, shows the device name, UUID and Labels where available, also the filesystem on it rather clearly.
• the order in fstab is irrelevant, also the names used there are only smoke and mirrors
  -> see above for blkid
• entries in fstab, for which the device is not always present, should be marked as nofail. Check the comment for that in errata:
  https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_2_Err ... t_in_fstab

[yankee495]

Thanks alot Dok! I never really had a partition problem like that. I kept going between that can't be, yet it is...

I didn't know the fstab labels were static. It is one of those things you don't know when it works. What a nice way to cure it too.

All of this is over a 1TB HDD that goes click and the computer stalls...the click is like the old HD's when you killed the power and the head parked, but it may do it once or 10 times...only in Win7, not Mageia. Very strange. I checked drivers and cables and kept coming back to the fact it is ok in Linux.

I think it is about to fail. Of course it has a 2 year warranty and is 27 months old. From what I've heard there is a bad batch of WD Blacks and a 50% or better failure rate, so I didn't buy one when they were recently on sale.

Going to get a 2TB when I deceide which one and catch it on sale. Thanks a bunch.

[filip]

All of this is over a 1TB HDD that goes click and the computer stalls...the click is like the old HD's when you killed the power and the head parked, but it may do it once or 10 times...only in Win7, not Mageia. Very strange. I checked drivers and cables and kept coming back to the fact it is ok in Linux.

I think it is about to fail.

You can try GSmartControl to check it. It's in our repositories.

[yankee495]

Thanks fillip,

I'll try it...but I tried Crystal Disk Info and HD tune...I need to run the Seatools on it from Seagate. I've had a drive die before but this one is really strange because in Linux it acts like a new drive.

[doktor5000]

Does it click after being connected in windows, or right from the start? Maybe some power management issue,
like with the WD Green drives, which is widely known ...

[yankee495]

It doesn't click at the boot menu and while in BIOS. Once in Win7 it may or may not start right off or may do it every few seconds or minutes. It would've had to have been an update because it ran fine for a long time.

It passes SMART tests etc. Sometimes it does a scan when booting Win7. It did do it a year or so ago and it quit. I copied the most important stuff to a external drive and ran it for a month or two as a storage drive under Mageia and it wouldn't die.

I booted into Win7 to check/flash a BIOS and it was unusable...stalling etc.

It makes a click....slide sound...not gritty...maybe click...woosh...that is click...short pause (stall)...woosh...

I don't keep up with Windows bugs anymore but I'll check that Windows PM issue, thanks Dok.

[yankee495]

Dok, it does this...pretty close but it is one click...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY2jAJks3ew

I'm thinking Win7 is trying to read a piece of data on a bad spot, and Linux doesn't read it constantly.

It is pretty much outta here no matter what...Like I said the WD's are having an issue with a 50% failue rate.

I always bought Maxtors back in the day. I built a lot of machines and my drive went bad one day, first ever. I returned it and they sent me a refurb, fine. It only had a 6 month warranty and 1 week before that ended it died. They replaced it again and it died really fast. All this time I was paying return shipping.

I was pretty upset and told them I bought a new drive and wanted a new drive with the warranty I paid for. They refused and I informed them I would never buy another Maxtor for me or anyone else and that I may be a little guy in the scheme of things but the "Boss" isn't gonna like the profit margins falling when the word gets around. They are gone now, bought by Seagate.

For the record it is a Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 32MB.

[yankee495]

When I said " it does this...pretty close but it is one click...", I mean it is never repeated one right after the other. It will click...stall...slide...then from 10 secs to hours later it will do it. Seems to be more frequent once it does it, but then again, sometimes not.

JUNK I'm afraid. Strange part is it seems ok in Mageia.

FOR SALE: Very good Linux Drive!