New Linux User Questions - SOLVED

user@debian:~$ fdisk -l -u

Disk /dev/sdc: 2000 MB, 2000682496 bytes
64 heads, 63 sectors/track, 969 cylinders, total 3907583 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *         129     3907007     1953439+   b  W95 FAT32
user@debian:~$

user@debian:~$ sudo parted /dev/sdb unit s print
Model: ATA WDC WD800JD-75MS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 156250000s
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start  End         Size        Type     File system  Flags
1      63s    156248189s  156248127s  primary  ntfs

user@debian:~$

I can't attach a picture yet but the GParted error says:
The device:
/dev/sdb
Does not exist.
ntfsresize v2012.I.I5AR.5(libntfs-3g) Error(2): Failed to check 'dev/sda2' mount state:
No such File or Directory
Probably /etc/mtab is missing. It is too risky to continue. You might try another Linux distro.
Unable to read the file system contents of this file system. Because of this some operations may be unavailable. The causer might might a missing software package. The following list of support packages is required for ntfs file system support.
ntfsprogs /ntfs-3g

Thank you!

Ok,  thank you. It must be the RAID driver. It has been a flawless server for 3 years and now it is becoming my desktop. I only get the left over hardware. Unfortunately the main partition is too small for what I need. Windows sees all of the partitions perfectly.

Gparted sees the first disk as well (/deb/sba). I am not sure of it's purpose. I assume it has something to do with my RAID or Windows 2003 server. It is a very small partition.

There are no hardware issues. I think I am driver limited. I have no data on this computer however I don't have the install disk for the Windows software. Our office manager lost it. I do have the serial number. Also, the CD ROM is dead and I don't need one.

So, from here I think I need to find Linux support for my RAID hardware. Does that seem reasonable?

I have dev/sda that is about 50mB and on the first physical drive.
dev/sdb is the boot partition on the first physical drive.
There is 90% unallocated space on the first physical drive.
dev/sdc is the USB drive.

I have split the RAID drives so the mirrors are different devices.

I have not seen any devices that are /dev/mapper/

I did not build the RAID personally. It was our Point of Sale provider. The computer is now abandoned in my office. Looking inside...

There are two identical disks attached to SATA ports in the mother board. It is set up with a Windows Mirror. It is not RAID 5 but a "Mirror" what ever that means.

I can access the drives in windows 2003 server with Computer Management>Disk Management and Add Mirror is the command to link them. I can not boot from the D: drive however.

The device manager describes both disks as:
WDC WD800-75MSA3

The first disk has a EISA partition on it that is 58mB. Windows will resize all partitions except the boot partition as well as break the mirror.

I don't know if any of this helps.

This "windows mirror" would make me suspect that the drives are perhaps declared "dynamic", not "basic" ones.
This dynamic disk notion was introduced in the microsoft systems since windows 2000 (or perhaps in some nt version) to make something like "software RAID" & LVM in Linux. It is still available, I think, but it wasn't really popular among system administrators, because it was incompatible with robust and approved tools they like to used. A disk failure can destroy an entire filesystem.
This dynamic disk system offered possibilities of "mirror" drives (something like RAID 1) or make a bigger disk space from more drives (like RAID 0). You can find more info on this, in your windows system help.

If so, I don't think parted could work on these drives. You have to look for any windows-specific tools. In such a case, you can't go back from dynamic to basic.
To check if the drives are really dynamic, you have to use the "disk management". The graphical representation of the drive space contains "Basic" or "Dynamic", perhaps stripped, spanned, ... .
A true RAID device appears usually there as one "basic" disk.

Please, look at the following link for info:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library … s.85).aspx

In case of some motherboard-based RAID, Gedakc already replied above.
In this case, you need the motherboard manual to find details on the RAID setup. If you don't find anything on RAID support in the motherboard manual, it is possible that the mirror is configured by the operating system from 2 dynamic drives.

In any case, I would recommend a good backup of any important data on this system. The drives are perhaps old, the system isn't very easy to support, it is better to be on the safe side.

It is declared Dynamic. Thank you all for your help! I wish commercial software developeres supported their software as well.