**Western Digital Green EARS** HDD's

[naelq]

i had some spare time to play with one of my eBox machines, which could not complete the install of any eBox version, & finally it's done!

the problem:
the installer takes forever to complete, & when it reboots to continue, it hangs on the "Pre-configuring packages" stage..

the cause:
WD's decision to move to 4K sector size http://www.anandtech.com/show/2888/2 , as with their new EARS Green series. & since i've upgraded the HDD of this machine, i could not finish any eBox install, most probably because it involves some intensive IO operations.. (DB?!)
in my case, i have the 1TB WD10EARS, which explains this weird behavior.

solution:
1. boot any live linux CD, ubuntu is fine, & manually partition the HDD(s) using fdisk with the following: (see man page for more info)

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#sudo fdisk -H 224 -S 56 /dev/sdXwhere sdX is your EARS HDD(s), partition as usual save & quit.

2. reload new partition table:

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#sudo partprobe
3. use parted to verify that all partitions' start positions are @ "4 divisible" positions:

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#sudo parted /dev/sdX
(parted) unit kib
(parted) printthe output should be something like:

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Disk /dev/sda: 976762584kiB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start        End           Size          Type      File system  Flags
 1      28.0kiB      106624kiB     106596kiB     primary   ext2         boot
 2      106624kiB    10599680kiB   10493056kiB   primary   ext3              
 3      10599680kiB  976757376kiB  966157696kiB  extended                    
 5      10599708kiB  12700800kiB   2101092kiB    logical   linux-swap        
 6      12700828kiB  976757376kiB  964056548kiB  logical   ext3              
note the above Start position..

4. restart the system, start the eBox/Ubuntu installer, use expert install, & when asked about partitioning the system, use manual, & just format each partition with desired FS & select appropriate mount point, & continue the install.. in other words, don't modify the partition table of the drive.


i hope this would help others

nael

[muppetgeoff]

Good catch, thanks for sharing

For info, we've had performace issues with these drives running Windows XP (you have to run the WDAlign app to fix them). We have since stopped buying them, and instead go for the EADS ones - no problems at all

Thanks again,

Geoff

[naelq]

you welcome
by the way, those HDD's are fast, so i think that it's worth the effort !


nael