Dude, Where Is My Hard Drive?

[Member Arius]

Hello!

I’m new to antiX.
Someone gave me an old computer and I’ve installed two old 500GB hard drives. One is SATA, one is IDE.
I installed antiX on one of the drives – I’m pretty sure it’s the IDE drive, but I don’t even know how to confirm that.

The problem I’m having is that I can’t locate the drives. I ran lsblk command and the drives both appear to be there, listed as sda and sdb. Presumably one of the drives is the one the operating system is on. However, I can’t find a way to navigate to or even find the other drive. I tried Rox-filer (as root) and spaceFM and neither of them has anything in a mnt folder or anything.

Ideally I’d like to be able to use both drives for storage, if I can figure out a way to visually see both drives and connect to them, copy files, etc.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions!

Arius

[Moderator caprea]

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Hi Arius, welcome to antiX. To make your hard drives visible in spacefm respectively zzzfm,which it is now on antiX21,
go to “devices” > preferences > show > internal drives
and checkmark it

Internal drives by default must be handled by root, so you could do this with
gksudo zzzfm

It might be better to look if the internal drive is added to /etc/fstab.
Please post
lsblk -fs
less /etc/fstab

[Member seaken64]

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You can use gparted from the LiveUSB. That will give you a nice GUI look at your drives. Once you have identified them as “sdax”, (x being the assigned number) you can use the tools like zzzfM and SpaceFM to display them and browse their contents.

Note, SpaceFM was used up until antiX-19. Can you try antiX-21?

This is where a pencil and paper can be handy. Write down the designations of your drives when you install antiX. I have several multi-boot systems with several versions of antiX and I keep track of which installation is on which drive/partition with a simple piece of paper and list as a memory aid.

Seaken64

[Member sybok]

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Hi, if the drives have different sizes, then ‘df -h’ can help to identify that e.g. ‘/’ partition is located on ‘/dev/sdaX’ and you can estimate its (i.e. ‘/dev/sda’) size from summing sizes of all the partitions listed in ‘df -h’.
This may be misleading if a portion of the drive is not allocated to any partition.

[Member marcelocripe]

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Hi Arius,

Welcome to antiX Linux and the forum.

I don’t know how to write in English and I send my texts translated by the internet translator. I hope you can understand everything, if your native language is not English, please translate my original Brazilian Portuguese text directly into your language with the help of internet translators.

I assume that you haven’t configured in your computer’s BIOS which hard drive should be booted first. You need to change in BIOS the hard disk that has to be booted. On some motherboards it is necessary to define the main hard disk and the secondary hard disk. The primary hard drive is what will be displayed in the boot device option.

You can do this test, change the main hard drive to the IDE, save the changes and check that antiX will boot normally. If not, change in BIOS for primary hard drive to SATA.

Once you’ve managed to solve this problem, regardless of your level of knowledge about GNU/Linux, I recommend you read these excellent tutorials created by @PPC:

Short essential how-to list for the complete Linux newbie and How-to install applications – 2020 version.

When you start a thread or participate with a post, remember to check the option “Notify me of follow-up replies via email”, by checking this option, you will receive a message in your e-mail box whenever there are replies from the topic in question.

Happy New Year to All

marcelocripe
(Original text in Brazilian Portuguese language)

– – – – –

Olá Arius,

Seja bem-vindo(a) ao antiX Linux e ao fórum.

Eu não sei escrever em idioma Inglês e envio os meus textos traduzidos pelo tradutor da internet. Eu espero que você consiga compreender tudo, caso o seu idioma nativo não seja o Inglês, por favor, traduza o meu texto original em idioma Português do Brasil diretamente para o seu idioma com a ajuda dos tradutores da internet.

Eu imagino que você não tenha configurado no BIOS do computador o disco rígido que deve ser inicializado primeiro. Você precisa alterar no BIOS o disco rígido que tem que ser inicializado. Em algumas placas-mães é necessário definir o disco rígido principal e o disco rígido secundário. O disco rígido principal é o que será exibido na opção de inicialização de dispositivos.

Você pode fazer este teste, alterar o disco rígido principal para o IDE, salvar as alterações e conferir se o antiX será inicializado normalmente. Caso isso não aconteça, altere no BIOS para o disco rígido principal para o SATA.

Após você conseguir resolver este problema, independentemente do seu nível de conhecimento sobre GNU/Linux, eu recomendo você ler estes excelentes tutoriais criados pelo @PPC:

Short essential how-to list for the complete Linux newbie e How-to install applications – 2020 version.

Quando você iniciar algum tópico ou participar com alguma postagem, lembre-se de marcar a opção “Notify me of follow-up replies via email”, marcando esta opção, você receberá uma mensagem na sua caixa de e-mail sempre que houver respostas do tópico em questão.

Feliz Ano Novo para Todos

marcelocripe
(Texto original em idioma Português do Brasil)

[Member Arius]

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Thanks for all the input so far!

To be clear, I am using antiX-21. I didn’t know zzzfm was the new thing and installed spaceFM assuming I was supposed to use that (on the recommendation of the first link Marcelo shared, which I had already gone over long before posting here. I’ve poked around in zzzfm a bit but wasn’t able to resolve my issue. And both drives are the same size, so figuring out which is IDE and which is SATA isn’t going to be that easy.

If I press Esc while booting I have the option of booting from either drive (sda or sdb). I might just leave it this way and consider it two computers in one, but that seems like a waste of resources. The other drive (sdb) has an ancient Windows system on it that I have no use for and would like to be rid of.

I’m attaching screenshots of the output after I entered the “lsblk” and “less” commands.

At one point GParted popped up. It detected both the sda and sdb drives. I wasn’t sure what to do beyond that. The program looked scary / overwhelming and I didn’t want to format or delete anything by mistake so I got out of there. I got the impression it’s designed for partitioning drives, which is something I don’t have much experience with and isn’t what I’m trying to do here.

To make your hard drives visible in spacefm respectively zzzfm,which it is now on antiX21,
go to “devices” > preferences > show > internal drives

This actually sort of worked for me! If I just open zzzfm, it says I can’t view the folder because I’m not root / admin. (It doesn’t give me an option to prove that I am.) But if I open it from terminal with root privileges, that sort of works in term of allowing me to navigate to the the folders on the sdb drive. But it would be nice if it was less of a hassle to get there. What I want is for both the sda and the sdb drives to show up right away when I open up a file manager so that I can store things on either drive with relative ease.

Attachments:

1. 

   screenshot2.jpg
   

2. 

   screenshot1.jpg
   

[Member seaken64]

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Don’t worry too much about using gparted. You can just “look around” without making any changes.

If you use a Live USB there will be at least three drives and you can select each drive separately from the drop down list in the upper right. One of the drives will be your USB, the other two will be your hard drives.

When you install antiX the installer will give your partition a label. Look for the label that is named rootantix21 or something similar. That is on your antiX drive and you will be able to jot down the /dev designation. The readout shows sdb1 formatted as ext2. That is probably your antiX drive.

Next the Windows partition will be formatted in something foreign to Linux, probably NTFS, or maybe FAT32. That will be your other drive and it will also have a drive designation. Your readout shows “sdb2” is the old windows drive formatted in ntfs.

You can look at drive “info” for each drive to get an idea of it’s type.
Once you have looked around you can quit with no harm done. Just exit the program.

You could “pull” one drive at a time and boot from LiveUSB to isolate each drive. The physical label on the drive will also give you clues and you can search on the drive model number.

Seaken64

[Member marcelocripe]

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Arius, now you have informed us which edition you have installed. But we don’t have more details yet, for example which ISO image you installed.

It is important that you note the ad text on the homepage of this forum:

“Announcements
current supported releases

antiX-21 “Grup Yorum” released on 31 October 2021. Details
antiX-19.4 “Grup Yorum” released on 21 May 2021.
antiX-17.4.1 “Helen Keller” released on 28 March 2019″

That is, there are 3 different editions of antiX that this forum offers technical support, so whenever you create a new topic or participate in a topic, always try to inform which antiX you are using, for example the name of the ISO.

To facilitate access to the zzzFM file manager which is a much improved variant of SpaceFM developed by @Skidoo, use the desktop that has the beginning of your zzz name, for example zzz-IceWM or zzz-JWM or zzz-Fluxbox .
To use the zzzFM file manager as an administrator user (root), open zzzFM, click on the File menu, Open Root Window, enter your user password, Ok, a new red window of the zzzFM file manager will open indicating that you are as an admin user.

Some NTFS (Windows) format partitions I couldn’t mount with SpaceFM, I haven’t tested zzzFM as much as I tested SpaceFM. Some partitions in NTFS format I could mount only with Rox Filer as root (Menu, Applications, System), after mounting with Rox Filer as root, SpaceFM as root I could access the data. This difficulty was reported in this topic Cannot mount internal NTFS partitions, only as root .

When you access the hard disk in graphical mode with zzzFM, you can see the Windows installation folders: Program Files, Users, etc. For this access the /media/ folder.

– – – – –

Arius, agora sim você nos informou qual é a edição que você instalou. Mas ainda não possuímos mais detalhes, por exemplo, qual é imagem ISO você instalou.

É importante você observar na página inicial deste fórum a texto do anúncio:

“Announcements
Current supported releases

antiX-21 “Grup Yorum” released on 31 October 2021. Details
antiX-19.4 “Grup Yorum” released on 21 May 2021.
antiX-17.4.1 “Helen Keller” released on 28 March 2019″

Ou seja, existem 3 edições diferentes do antiX que este fórum oferece suporte técnico, por isso sempre que você criar um novo tópico ou participar de algum tópico, tente sempre informar qual é o antiX que você está utilizado, por exemplo o nome da ISO.

Para facilitar o acesso ao gerenciador de arquivos zzzFM que é uma variante muito melhorada do SpaceFM desenvolvido pelo @Skidoo, utilize a área de trabalho que possua no início do seu nome zzz, por exemplo, zzz-IceWM ou zzz-JWM ou zzz-Fluxbox.
Para você utilizar o gerenciador de arquivos zzzFM como usuário administrador (root), abra o zzzFM, clique no menu File, Open Root Window, digite a sua senha de usuário, Ok, uma nova janela em cor vermelha do gerenciador de arquivos zzzFM abrirá indicando que você está como usuário administrador.

Algumas partições em formato NTFS (do Windows) eu não conseguia montar com o SpaceFM, eu ainda não testei tanto o zzzFM como testei o SpaceFM. Algumas partições em formato NTFS eu conseguia montar apenas com o Rox Filer como root (Menu, Aplicativos, Sistema), depois de montado com o Rox Filer como root, o SpaceFM como root eu conseguia acessar os dados. Esta dificuldade foi relatada neste tópico Cannot mount internal NTFS partitions, only as root.

Quando você acessar o disco rígido em modo gráfico com o zzzFM, você poderá ver as pastas da instalação do Windows: Program Files, Users, etc. Para isso acesse a pasta /media/.

[Member Arius]

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You could “pull” one drive at a time and boot from LiveUSB to isolate each drive.

What is “pulling” and “isolating” a drive?
I’m not entirely sure, but a LiveUSB is a USB boot disk that allows me to try out an operating system without installing it, right? Except why would I do that if the OS is already installed?

But we don’t have more details yet, for example which ISO image you installed.

This is me: antiX-21 “Grup Yorum” released on 31 October 2021.

Hopefully that answers your question, since I have no idea how to figure out which ISO image I installed.
I know I see “Grup Yorum” when I boot up and I am definitely running antiX-21.
(Btw, is it pronounced “Auntie Ex,” or “antics”?)

Gracias for your help, Marcelo. The tip about running zzz-IceWM and using the Open Root Window option was very helpful.

I was able to determine that it is the SATA drive that is running antiX, and the IDE drive (sdb2) that still has Windows on it. So if I’m understanding this correctly – it is the Windows architecture / formatting on the drive that is making it hard to navigate to? Can I just format the drive to something linux-compatible and have that be the end of it? If so, how??? (I already backed up the IDE drive a long time ago, so I’m not concerned about losing whatever is on there.)

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by Arius.

[Anonymous]

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What is “pulling” and “isolating” a drive?

worded differently: the act of physically disconnecting its cable(s)

no idea how to figure out which ISO image I installed.

Howabout, compare the output of this terminal command
wc -l /usr/share/antiX/installed-packages.txt
to the number of packages preinstalled in each ISO version, as reported here 3 days ago: https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/small-doubt-about-packages-in-antix-releases/
antiX 21 x64 FULL sysv edition ~~~ 1570 preinstalled packages
antiX 21 x64 BASE sysv edition ~~~ 1201 preinstalled packages
antiX 21 x64 CORE sysv edition ~~~ 504 preinstalled packages
antiX 21 x64 NET sysv edition ~~~ 246 preinstalled packages

[Moderator christophe]

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From https://download.tuxfamily.org/antix/docs-antiX-19/Boot_Menu/antiX-gfxboot.html:

antiX is pronounced like the word antics, which means amusing, frivolous, or eccentric behavior.

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Member marcelocripe]

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Dear Arius, I tried to reply in this thread, but the forum is saying *** Forbidden. Message seems to be spam. ***, so I replied by private message. It’s unfortunate that only you will have access to the information I sent you, the information could be useful to other people.

My greetings.

– – – –

Caro Arius, eu tentei responder neste tópico, mas o fórum está dizendo *** Forbidden. Message seems to be spam. ***, por isso eu respondi por mensagem particular. É lamentável que apenas você terá acesso as informações que eu te enviei, as informações poderiam ser úteis para as outras pessoas.

Meus cumprimentos.

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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…
Hopefully that answers your question, since I have no idea how to figure out which ISO image I installed.

cat /etc/antix-version

will tell as as will

inxi -v8

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member seaken64]

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Yes, if you do not need anything on the old Windows drive you can just reformat it and use it as data drive. This is one of the things gparted is used for.

Read the manual/help and pay attention to Delete Partition, Format, New Partition.

After reading up come back here an we can help you through the process.

You also could install another antiX on the newly formatted drive and then mount it on the other antiX installation, and visa-versa. Thus is called a Dual-Boot or Multi-boot system.

This may all be foreign to you now. But I do this all the time and if you are willing we can help you learn more about how it is done. Linux is very capable.

Also, since you have a working install of antiX already installed you should share your system info with us using the “inxi” program. Open a terminal and type

inxi -Fxz

then copy and paste into the forum.

Seaken64

[Member seaken64]

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Arius wrote:

You could “pull” one drive at a time and boot from LiveUSB to isolate each drive.

What is “pulling” and “isolating” a drive?
I’m not entirely sure, but a LiveUSB is a USB boot disk that allows me to try out an operating system without installing it, right? Except why would I do that if the OS is already installed?

To “pull” a drive is to remove it from the system, unplug it. In this case temporarily. It is a troubleshooting technique. It “isolates” the other drive since one of the two drives is not active. All software manipulations (troubleshooting activities using utility software such as gparted, the file manager, etc.) while in this condition will only be acting on the one drive.

Yes, part of what a LiveUSB is capable of is to “try” the operating system before installation. But in the case of antiX the LiveUSB is a fully functioning operating system all on it’s own and it is again “isolated” from the main system already installed on your hard drive. You can use all the same software and utilities on your hardware without having to “mount” the hard drive unless you want to. This allow you to troubleshoot the hardware without having the installed-to-hard-drive operating system active and in control.

Seaken64

[Author]

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