NASLite Network Attached Storage

I converted a spare pc with an AMD K6-2 500, A-open MB, 512 ram to a NASLite-2 cdd server. This box has 3 drives in it. Maxtor 30gig, IBM 8.4gig, and a WD 80gig.

When i turn off drive detection in the bios as recommended in the NASLite manual. The WD 80 does not show up after the server boots and i log in. If i turn drive detection back on, then the WD80 shows up in the servers list of drives but it only reports it has 31gig of capacity.

The other 2 drives both show their correct size. I know the bios had a problem seeing the drive when the pc was on windows & i ended up using drive overlay software called Disk Manger to interpret to the bios the correct drive size.

Isn't NASLite-2 supposed to bypass the bios to exploit the drives full capacity. Is there any thing i can do to utilize this drives full capacity.

Thanks for any help you can provide..

Hello dasnas:

You need to wipe the 80GB to remove any traces of the old overlay software. The best thing to do is what's called a low-level format (writing zeros to the drive). I think the Western Digital diagnostics does that (download from WDC). A free software alternative can be found at http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm.

Before "wipe" the drive, I would recommend no other drives are connected or powered-on to prevent "accidentally" wiping the wrong drive ( I've been there ).

Then turn detection back off (as you've done before) and you should be able to see the entire blank 80GB -- ready to be formatted by NASLite.

If it still shows as 31GB, look for a jumper in the back of the drive that limits capacity to 31 or 32GB. Set the jumper per WD instructions to disable the capacity limit.

Hope this works for you ...

Georg

I pulled the drive and check for any size limiting jumpers and there were none, just you normal Master/Slave/Cable Select..

I D/L the utility from the Killdisk site and ran it on the drive. Both before and after the wipe, Killdisk also only saw it as a 31 gig drive also.

I guess i will have to go through the hardware reference guide for NL2 and see what other type of I/O card they list. Then try to find one and see if that works to resolve the problem.

dasnas:

Ok, the overlay was wiped out by KillDisk, but the BIOS still only sees 31GB (because it's an old BIOS). Have you now tried to turn OFF HDD detection and tried NL again ? Look in the SysLog to see if it finds the drive and reports the correct size. (If you have trouble interpreting the SysLog, post back the entire thing.)

If NL still does not correctly see the drive ... a few more suggestions.

Put the drive on a modern Motherboard/BIOS and verify it sees 80GB. If it does not, use KillDsk again. Then put the drive back in the AMD-K6 system, but make sure to have drive detection OFF before it boots. Also, does the AMD-K6 BIOS have an option to reset system configuration data ? Try that, and/or remove the CMOS battery for a few minutes (and no power connected).

When you say "other type of I/O card" ... was the 80GB connected during all these trials to the Aopen MB's on-board IDE channel or a PCI card ?

Georg

I turned off drive detection and upon rebooting NL2 does not see the 3rd 80g drive at all. I turned drive detection back on to auto in the bios and the 80g shows up to NL2 but still as only a 31g drive.

The drive has been connected directly to the Aopen MB during all of this. What I was wondering was if i needed to look into a seperate PCI I/O board to get around this problem. If it were only a few gigs i would live with it but 50g is more than i can disregard.

I will try to reset the MB Bios to the default setup and see what happens. Next will be to pull the drive and put it in another box that can see a drive that big.

As for the syslog, It looks like its seeing the drive as a 31g during boot as well.

# Jun 22 01:01:40 NAS user.warn kernel: hda: Maxtor 53073H4, ATA DISK drive
# Jun 22 01:01:40 NAS user.warn kernel: hdb: IBM-DHEA-38451, ATA DISK drive
javascript:emoticon(':arrow:')
Arrow# Jun 22 01:01:40 NAS user.warn kernel: hdc: WDC WD800JB-00FMA0, ATA DISK drive
# Jun 22 01:01:40 NAS user.warn kernel: hdd: LITE-ON LTR-52327S, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
# Jun 22 01:01:40 NAS user.warn kernel: ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
# Jun 22 01:01:40 NAS user.warn kernel: ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
# Jun 22 01:01:40 NAS user.warn kernel: hda: attached ide-disk driver.
# Jun 22 01:01:40 NAS user.warn kernel: hda: host protected area => 1
# Jun 22 01:01:40 NAS user.info kernel: hda: 60030432 sectors (30736 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=3736/255/63, UDMA(33)
# Jun 22 01:01:40 NAS user.warn kernel: hdb: attached ide-disk driver.
# Jun 22 01:01:40 NAS user.info kernel: hdb: 16514064 sectors (8455 MB) w/472KiB Cache, CHS=1027/255/63, UDMA(33)
# Jun 22 01:01:40 NAS user.warn kernel: hdc: attached ide-disk driver.
# Jun 22 01:01:40 NAS user.warn kernel: hdc: host protected area => 1
# Jun 22 01:01:40 NAS user.info kernel: hdc: setmax LBA 156301488, native 66055248
# Jun 22 01:01:40 NAS user.info kernel: hdc: 66055248 sectors javascript:emoticon(':arrow:')
Arrow(33820 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=65531/16/63, UDMA(33)

I appreciate your suggestions, I dont blame NL2 or the Aopen box, its just something logical keeping them from seeing the 80g drives info.

javascript:emoticon(':D')
Very Happy dasnas

This is getting way more technical than it should, of course, but ... An excerpt from WDC document http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=567

Set your BIOS to auto detect the drive using LBA mode. Older systems may hang or freeze while auto detecting large capacity drives. If this situation occurs, set the drive to User and enter 1023 for Cylinders, 16 for Heads, 63 for Sectors, and disable LBA mode. Your BIOS may have more settings than Cylinders, Heads, and Sectors; if so, simply enter 0 for them.

Then boot NL. (Don't try to use the suggested DataLifeGuard Tools to fix the issue, it won't help with NL)

Also, you might try placing the 80GB on IDE0 as a master drive, with no slave, and the optical drive on IDE1, also with no slave, until the correct size is detected.

Also look at hopsing's strange solution (at end of http://www.serverelements.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=831 -- checking for bad blocks).

Georg

Thanks for the great ideas georg. Tried the LBA with Auto setting & still 31g. Went back and tried setting to User and this bios will not allow me to move to the fields for cyl. etc. Only Mode is available for editing with the User setting selected. I know other MB's usually offer a wide range of settings when you choose user, but my Award Bios will only offer the Type as: Auto-None-User & the Mode as:Auto-Large-LBA-Normal.

Im going to look at the A-open site to see what the latest revision is for the Bios in their archive, Maybe a flash of the Bios will get me further if one is available still.

dasnas

And I forgot to respond to your question regarding a PCI card with IDE ports: yes that should work, since they include their own BIOS which overcomes the limitations of the Motherboard BIOS. I do not have a recommendation, and you must make sure the PCI card is in the NL Hardware Reference Manual before buying one (should be very cheap on Ebay).

Don't forget to try hopsing's checking-all-blocks ...

Georg

I have tried everything to get my 80 g drive recognized at anything more than 31g. I tried all the suggestions in the forum, and finally as a last resort bought a sealed Promise Ultra133 TX2 unit online. I Put it in hoping for the best and tried to reformat the drive but NL2 said it had to be unmounted before formating, I could not see where i could unmount a drive so i booted off a 98 boot disk, and Fdisk the non dos drive and then switched back to NL2. Hoping for the best i formatted the new drive NL2 found and still the same result after rebooting, 31g. I guess this Asus Ax59pro MB is just hard headed. I disabeled auto detect in the bios as well as on board settings for the pri and sec channel. The promise board posts that it see's the drive but Somewhere in between NL2 gets told its only 31g of storage. I was hoping this would have resolved the 80g dilemma as a store near me has pata 500g drives for 99 bucks. I guess now it would be a waste of time to invest in a 500g drive with these results..

Im open for any suggestions or criticisms at this point..

DasNas