From owner-freebsd-geom@FreeBSD.ORG Tue May 20 18:59:38 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id DFD03BF8 for ; Tue, 20 May 2014 18:59:37 +0000 (UTC) Received: from h2.funkthat.com (gate2.funkthat.com [208.87.223.18]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "funkthat.com", Issuer "funkthat.com" (not verified)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id BD7012566 for ; Tue, 20 May 2014 18:59:37 +0000 (UTC) Received: from h2.funkthat.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by h2.funkthat.com (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id s4KIxag9060824 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Tue, 20 May 2014 11:59:37 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jmg@h2.funkthat.com) Received: (from jmg@localhost) by h2.funkthat.com (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id s4KIxZEK060823; Tue, 20 May 2014 11:59:35 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jmg) Date: Tue, 20 May 2014 11:59:35 -0700 From: John-Mark Gurney To: "Ronald F. Guilmette" Subject: Re: GEOM_PART: Integrity check failed (ada2, MBR) Message-ID: <20140520185935.GS43976@funkthat.com> Mail-Followup-To: "Ronald F. Guilmette" , freebsd-geom@freebsd.org References: <20140517162513.GG43976@funkthat.com> <73415.1400371256@server1.tristatelogic.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <73415.1400371256@server1.tristatelogic.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 7.2-RELEASE i386 X-PGP-Fingerprint: 54BA 873B 6515 3F10 9E88 9322 9CB1 8F74 6D3F A396 X-Files: The truth is out there X-URL: http://resnet.uoregon.edu/~gurney_j/ X-Resume: http://resnet.uoregon.edu/~gurney_j/resume.html X-TipJar: bitcoin:13Qmb6AeTgQecazTWph4XasEsP7nGRbAPE X-to-the-FBI-CIA-and-NSA: HI! HOW YA DOIN? can i haz chizburger? X-Greylist: Sender passed SPF test, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.2.2 (h2.funkthat.com [127.0.0.1]); Tue, 20 May 2014 11:59:37 -0700 (PDT) Cc: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18 Precedence: list List-Id: GEOM-specific discussions and implementations List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 20 May 2014 18:59:38 -0000 Ronald F. Guilmette wrote this message on Sat, May 17, 2014 at 17:00 -0700: > In message <20140517162513.GG43976@funkthat.com>, > John-Mark Gurney wrote: > > >Ronald F. Guilmette wrote this message on Fri, May 16, 2014 at 12:38 -0700: > >> > >> In message <20140516130346.GB43976@funkthat.com>, > >> John-Mark Gurney wrote: > >> >Wow, I just noticed this... FreeBSD is only seeing it as a 31MB drive > >> >instead of a 1TB drive... This is probably the problem... > >> > >> OHHHHH! Wow! Yea. That is MESSED UP! > >> ... > > >Can you get a memstick of 11-CURRENT from: > >https://www.freebsd.org/snapshots/ > >and get the output of: > >camcontrol identify ada2 -v > >from a boot of the memstick? mav thinks that it might be an issue w/ > >HPA, and this should help track it down. > > I don't think that there is any need anymore for me to do the above > steps. I am now convinced that I do know what has caused this rather > remarkable (and remarkably annoying) problem. > > I had forgotten all about this, until now, but there is apparently a > known problem where older (pre-2010) Gigabyte motherboards will in > fact create a Host Protected Area (HPA) on the ``first'' ATA drive > in a given system, *and* that in cases where the drive is 1TB or larger, > the result will be a drive that self-identifies as being only 31 (or 32) > megabytes big. (You can google for this known problem and you'll find a > _lot_ of references to it.) > > The specific 1 TB drive on which I experienced this problem had been > working just fine with no problems whatsoever on another system that I > have here. However I made the mistake of trying to put it into my #2 > desktop system, which is based on a vintage 2006 Gigabyte motherboard. > > I now firmly believe that this caused the specific form of corruption > that now afflicts the drive in question. > > I already have sought, and have already been provided with the steps > that I need to undertake in order to "repair" the apparent capacity of > the drive in question, and I am already making plans to replace my > *&^%$#@ Gigabyte motherboard with something different with all due > haste. > > I will *never* purchase another Gigabyte motherboard as long as I live! > (In addition to this extraordinarily problem, it also has had a number > of obscure problems booting various things from USB-attached mass > storage.) > > Anyway, my thanks to all involved for their time and effort considering > my unfortunate plight. Who knew that just connecting an otherwise > flawless hard drive to a specific kind of motherboard would instantly > render it effectively brain dead? Wow, this is sooo BAD... Motherboards should never touch a HD like this w/o consent from the user... Though of course the other thing is that Gigabyte's QA is soo bad that they didn't catch such a basic bug in testing... but this does sound like your issue though, glad you found it... And this is useful info for others too, Thanks. -- John-Mark Gurney Voice: +1 415 225 5579 "All that I will do, has been done, All that I have, has not."