Problems adding an additional external drive

[bixtool]

I just purchased an external drive to add to Vortexbox. I followed the online tutorial available in the documentation section to add another drive. I cannot complete this command: mkfs -t xfs /dev/sdb1 to add a partition.


I get the following error:



[vortexbox.localdomain ~]# mkfs -t xfs /dev/sdb1


mkfs.xfs: /dev/sdb1 appears to contain an existing filesystem (ntfs).


mkfs.xfs: Use the -f option to force overwrite.





However, I cannot use the -f switch, since it appears to refer to "fragment size"




Can anyone help here?

[bixtool]

BTW: I already deleted the exising partition using fdisk. fdisk -l shows no partition for device dev/sdb

[arthur]

from the vortexbox "man fdisk"


> fdisk doesn’t understand GUID Partition Table (GPT) and it is not designed for large partitions. In particular case use more advanced GNU parted(8)




if you still have trouble after doing with parted what you did with fdisk


at the command line, you could try


dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=512


the above zero's out the first 512 sectors,


then try parted, mkfs again.

[sanfrancisco]

Hello,




I have the exact same problem with a 1TB drive I just bought.


I followed the instructions and get the same error message as bixtool.


I am totally new to Linux, and am not sure I understand Arthur's tip (even though i did do as instructed - to no avail)




Please help! I really have no idea what to do... http://vortexbox.org/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-cry.gif

[steveh]

I converted my guid partition tabled drive to mbr using a Windows machine




i.e http://www.sevenforums.com/tut.....-disk.html (http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26203-convert-gpt-disk-mbr-disk.html)

[sanfrancisco]

steveh-




many thanks. It did the trick: I have been able to format my drive. I have attempted to mount it, but I do not see the drive listed in the web user interface. All I see in the home tab is the internal HDD - no trace of my external HDD.


Is this normal? How do i mount it?




Many thanks!

[sanfrancisco]

Sorry, let me be more specific.


Under the Vortexbox Main Menu, I only see:


Filesystem


/storage


Size


129G


Used


65G




etc.




However, in the /phpsysinfo page, i see this:


Mounted Filesystems




Mount
Type
Partition
Percent Capacity
Free
Used
Size


/
ext3
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00
http://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_left.gifhttp://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_middle.gifhttp://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_right.gif 6% (1%)
17.06 GB
1.19 GB
19.22 GB


/storage
xfs
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol02
http://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_left.gifhttp://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_middle.gifhttp://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_right.gif 50% (1%)
64.37 GB
64.38 GB
128.75 GB


/boot
ext3
/dev/sda1
http://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_left.gifhttp://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_middle.gifhttp://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_right.gif 7% (1%)
170.01 MB
13.68 MB
193.69 MB


/storage/extdisk
xfs
/dev/sdb1
http://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_left.gifhttp://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_middle.gifhttp://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_right.gif 0%
931.38 GB
4.16 MB
931.39 GB


/dev/shm
tmpfs
tmpfs
http://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_left.gifhttp://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_middle.gifhttp://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_right.gif 0% (1%)
497.18 MB
0.00 KB
497.18 MB


Totals :
http://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_left.gifhttp://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_middle.gifhttp://192.168.1.133/phpsysinfo/templates/classic/images/bar_right.gif 6%
1013.46 GB
65.59 GB
1080.03 GB








It appears that the external HDD is mounted (under /storage/extdisk, showing 931.39GB).




So my questions are: how do I use it? How do I save files to it, or transfer the files currently on the internal HDD to it?




Many thanks!!

[steveh]

If its for storage and not back up this should cover it,




http://vortexbox.org/documenta.....vortexbox/ (http://vortexbox.org/documentation/how-to-add-a-second-drive-to-your-vortexbox/)




The web interface will only show an attached drive for backup purposes once VB has marked it as a backup disk following format via GUI.

[sanfrancisco]

Got it. So the instructions on the Documentation page are those I have been following.


What I did after I was abler to format my drive:


1. I created a directory


mkdir /storage/extdisk




2. I mounted the disk

mount /dev/sdb1 /storage/extdisk



With that, I get the result I pasted above.


How can I make sure if my drive is mounted? And how do I use it? I can't see it anywhere...

[steveh]

VB is setup up to rip music to /storage/music/flac , so if you follow the later part of the instructions your drive will be mounted /storage and you need to create the directories




mkdir -p /storage/music/flac
mkdir -p /storage/music/mp3
mkdir -p /storage/movies
mkdir -p /storage/pictures




You should then be able to see these as network shares ,files ,music,movies,pictures if you click on files you will then have read write access to the sub directories.

[sanfrancisco]

ok, so I have created the directories as indicated.


From a network computer, I see under 'files' a new directory 'extdisk', alongside the existing directories 'movies', 'music', 'pictures'.


'extdisk' is empty at this point.


What I am confused about (sorry for being so slow) is this: how does VB understand that it needs to look into both internal and external HD? Since my external HD is mounted as /storage/extdisk (as per instructions), how will VB pick up any music I add to this directory (as you pojnted out, VB looks for music in the /storage/music/flac directory, not /storage/extdisk)? Shall I mount my external HD as /storage? The instructions say both are possible. http://vortexbox.org/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-confused.gif






Again, I am ever thankful for your kind help (and your patience http://vortexbox.org/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-smile.gif)

[steveh]

Perhaps I'm incorrectly assuming that you wish to rip,copy and store the music on your external hard drive. Once you ext drive is mounted /storage the VB will not be able to see the directories /storage/ on the internal hard drive. Squeezebox server will look for the music where you tell it i.e /storage/music/flac which obviously are potentially two different places depending on whether the ext drive is mounted or not. Likewise with a CD rip it will do similar.


You could delete the other the partitions on the ext drive leaving extdisk only but then VB would rip to the internal drive.You could then copy everything to extdisk and get SB server to use that as a music folder.i.e /storage/extdisk but that seems rather clumsy.

[sanfrancisco]

OK, I think I get it. Let me just try to summarize to make sure:


- if I mount the external HD directly as /storage, then VB won't see my internal HD any longer;


- there is not much point in mounting (as I did) the external HD as /storage/extdisk




So should I unmount my external HD and remount it directly under /storage?


If so, how do I do that?

[steveh]

Can we go back a bit , What would like to use the external drive for?

[cranching]

Different poster, also a linux idiot, perhaps an idiot in general


Let's call me Poster 2


I have a new VB Appliance.


- I want to use it with Sonos.


- I want to use it with iTunes.


- I want to use it for media and file backup, long term storage (for example, copying in the 'documents' folders of the stack of 10 years of 40, 80, 160 GB hard drives from dead computers). This might benefit from an attached USB drive.


- I want to use it as media server via its own media server or Twonky. This might benefit from an attached USB drive.


- I don't have a massive music collection so 1TB should handle storage of old stuff and the music purpose fine.


So, I got started, clicked off the services of interest from the web interface (Twonky, etc.).


Bringing in a variety of old stuff & housekeeping looked easiest with drag and drop. So I managed to get Gnome on there using the forum instructions. That is fine.


Deciding what to drag and drop and what to throw away (which means playing things) crashed the Appliance with Gnome's built in movie player. Lots of different encodings. So I had to put on VLC, and for that I had to put on RPM fusion (apparently), and for that I had to put on Firefox (to find it). So that is all on there.


So everything looks pretty good, I can drag old stuff from mounted USB drives and put them into /storage in the right place to be found and indexed.


But there is at least one USB drive that I don't really want to bother copying over. There is a lot on it, and I think I would like it to be portable. No, it isn't porn. The main use would be to have the media server point at it – and Twonky is working better than the built in server on Xbox in particular. Xbox is the main client for the media server, but the Sonos units also show up as media servers or something, and I have a WII as well.


(I also have an iPad, which I don't need as a music client given the Sonos, but would be a good movie client to be served from the Appliance in a fantasy world where the Appliance had enough compute and graphics to transcode into on the fly like AirVideo Server does and I managed to get a linux version on there. But I think the Atom won't do that…right? Ion might I guess.)


So I pointed Twonky at the attached drive (which shows up mounted in /media?), but the Xbox can't unsort it.


This is a rather long explanation, but the above thread, as well as the FAQ posting on adding a second drive, is not about adding a second drive at all. Reading


http://vortexbox.org/documenta...... 

is indeed about a second drive… for a while, then it becomes 'but the first one is not longer for media storage'.

It is about transferring your stuff to a replacement drive that is 'temporarily' a second drive.




So…what if you want to attach old media drives to the system and have different services see them? Is it as simple as mounting them to the filesystem on a directory that isn't storage? (being an idiot, I do not want to have the original 1TB disappear somehow, so I am not mounting anything until I know it is OK)


Thanks very much to Mr. Vortexbox, and the community, in advance.

[hifihere]

sanfrancisco said:

ok, so I have created the directories as indicated.


From a network computer, I see under 'files' a new directory 'extdisk', alongside the existing directories 'movies', 'music', 'pictures'.


'extdisk' is empty at this point.


What I am confused about (sorry for being so slow) is this: how does VB understand that it needs to look into both internal and external HD? Since my external HD is mounted as /storage/extdisk (as per instructions), how will VB pick up any music I add to this directory (as you pojnted out, VB looks for music in the /storage/music/flac directory, not /storage/extdisk)? Shall I mount my external HD as /storage? The instructions say both are possible. http://vortexbox.org/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-confused.gif





Again, I am ever thankful for your kind help (and your patience http://vortexbox.org/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-smile.gif)






Bringing this thread back to the question above, I too wonder how to add additional drive space for the flac folder. If this was a Windows OS running Squeezebox I would simply include a shortcut in the music folder for all the additional locations and drives to create expansion. Is there a way to do the same with this Linux based OS?