Cant find my harddrives in ubuntu installation?

Question

I was trying to setup a Microserver with two 1TB harddrives as a software RAID. Somehow it didnt work and now ubuntu 14.04 is not starting. My problem is that I dont see the drives anymore when I go through the installation process again!

On boot I can see, that there are two working drives inserted, but I cant see them while being in the "partitioning menu" during the Ubuntu server installation.

There is no data on those drives, so I am looking for some way to erase them completely, so they show up again. From the installation I could switch to an Almequist (ash) shell.

How can I get my drives back?

Thanks!

Solution 1

On ubuntu live, if you hit ctrl + alt + F2 you should be able to enter into the interactive terminal after a few seconds.

You could use sudo fdisk -l which should output all the drives.

If you can see the drives in fdisk, then you could use cfdisk to delete the partitions on /dev/sd[a-d] so that you can start over.

If you can't see them on fdisk, then you could try unplugging the drives, waiting a minute and then re-plugging the drives, and then looking for them again on fdisk.

I'm not sure if this is entirely related, but if you used unetbootin to make the ubuntu 14.04 install USB, it doesn't work all that well, especially on unconventional hardware. So you might try using something like dd or ddrescue for making the USB.

Solution 2

The HP ProLiant N54L uses a FakeRAID controller. In order to see the drives, you may have to modify the BIOS settings to use AHCI mode.

Comments

[Webx10]

I am not using the hardware RAID. BIOS is set to AHCI mode.

[Webx10]

Thanks! Could it be, that I am using the wrong ubuntu-image (14.04), bc I dont see the option for "ubuntu live"? screenshot

[Webx10]

I guess I downloaded the server edition (which I want to use). Does that mean I need a second usb stick with the desktop edition, just to be able to use fdisk?

[Webx10]

Is there a way to use the ash shell?

[Webx10]

I downloaded the desktop edition and createt a bootable usb stick and used this tutorial to delete the partitions. And then it finally worked again! Thanks @Zachary !

[Zachary]

@Webx10 I apologize for my unclear answer. I usually call the .iso files that you get from ubuntu.com or others "live" images. Sometimes you will see people refer to a "Live CD" which is the install disk.