1 Topic by HunterZ (edited by HunterZ 2010-04-02 04:46:16)

  • HunterZ
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Topic: 0.5.2 can't resize nVidia RAID 0 partition

I've got a ~300 GiB two-drive RAID 0 (striped array) setup via my computer's on-board nVidia RAID controller. It currently has a single ntfs partition with Windows XP, and I'd like to shrink it so that I can install Ubuntu in a separate partition.

When I boot my GParted 0.5.2 CD, it sees the array as /dev/mapper/nvidia/jcbjcfdf . It also sees the 298.09 GiB ntfs partition on it, but shows an exclamation mark next to it in the partition list.

When I open the Info screen for the partition, I get the following:

File system: ntfs
Size: 298.09 GiB
Flags: boot

Path: /dev/mapper/nvidia_jcbjcfdfp1
Status: Not mounted
Label:
UUID:

First sector: 63
Last sector: 625137344
Total sectors: 625137282

/!\ Warning:
The device /dev/mapper/nvidia_jcbjcfdfp1 doesn't exist

ntfsresize v2.0.0 (libntfs 10:0:0)
ERROR(2): Failed to check '/dev/mapper/nvidia_jcbjcfdfp1'
mount state: No such file or directory
Probably /etc/mtab is missing. It's too risky to continue. You
might try
an another Linux distro.

Unable to read the contents of this file system!
Because of this some operations may be unavailable.

The following list of software packages is required for ntfs
file system support: ntfsprogs.

Does GParted not support my RAID controller, or is there some trick to making it work? Or, is there another partitioning tool out there that can do the job?

Thanks.


Edit: Also, if I do a "mount -t ntfs /dev/mapper/nvidia_jcbjcfdf1 /mnt" then Linux is able to mount it and I can see the files at /mnt . When I then view it in GParted it is now able to see how much of the partition is used, but it still gives a warning saying "The device /dev/mapper/nvidia_jcbjcfdfp1 doesn't exist".

2 Reply by HunterZ

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Re: 0.5.2 can't resize nVidia RAID 0 partition

Update: Well, the freeware version of EASEUS Partition Master was able to resize the XP partition for me without problems, but then Ubuntu 9.10's install CD had pretty much the same problem as GParted recognizing the nVidia RAID 0 array. I guess that means it's a Linux issue rather than a GParted issue.

I've now copied the XP partition to another drive, then deleted the array, then copied the XP partition back to one of the now individual SATA drives. Once I get that bootable again (need to use XP recovery console to fix the boot/MBR stuff) I will install Ubuntu to the other drive.

This is a satisfactory solution because I no longer care about the boot drive performance of that box (it's an old gaming machine now being used mainly for web browsing, LAN-accessible file storage, etc.).

3 Reply by gedakc

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Re: 0.5.2 can't resize nVidia RAID 0 partition

Thank you for reporting back with your discovery on how you dealt with this challenge.

4 Reply by class413

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Re: 0.5.2 can't resize nVidia RAID 0 partition

Thread moved to the Live Media section.

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

5 Reply by MaryG

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Re: 0.5.2 can't resize nVidia RAID 0 partition

HunterZ: I have a very similar problem. I used ddrescue to backup a disk image to a network location, and then used ddrescue again to restore the image to a new SATA disk (working through a "Promise" PCI conroller).

How would you recommend to restore the partition table?

Details:

Running Gparted 0.8.0-5: when running Gparted, there is a warning sign with /dev/sdb, and when you click on it, it says: "The device doesn't exist (etc...) ntfs resize failed to check 'dev/sdb1' mount state: no such file or directory (etc ...)"

Running testdisk, it says:
"Partition Start End Size in sectors
P NTFS 0 0 24320 238 390715857 1 63 [DISK2_VOL1]
NTFS, 200GB/186GiB"
(DISK2_VOL1 is the original volume name of the restored disk. 200GB it its original size). So testdisk is able to mount the NTFS file system and browse the directory structure.

"parted" says the partition type is "loop", in other words, no partition table.
When I go:
>ls /dev | grep sd
>/dev/sda
>/dev/sda1
>/dev/sda2
>/dev/sdb

There is no /dev/sdb1.

What to do? It seems that I need to fix the partition table, or create a new one. Should I go: "parted mklabel msdos"? I don't want to corrupt the data.