Arch Linux

notverysmart

Member

Registered: 2019-03-30

Posts: 10

[SOLVED] Arch USB can't see hard disk

I am trying to install arch off of a USB, but /dev/sda points to the USB itself and I can't figure out how to access the hard disk. lsblk, fdisk -l, parted -l, and the contents of /dev/disk show only the USB. If it helps, the hard disk contains a fresh install of windows at the moment. How can I get arch to see my hard drive so that I can mount it?

Last edited by notverysmart (2019-03-30 11:10:04)

d_fajardo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-28

Posts: 1,653

Re: [SOLVED] Arch USB can't see hard disk

but /dev/sda points to the USB itself and I can't figure out how to access the hard disk. lsblk, fdisk -l, parted -l, and the contents of /dev/disk show only the USB.

It is not very clear what you mean by this. Can you post the actual output?

notverysmart

Member

Registered: 2019-03-30

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Arch USB can't see hard disk

lsblk

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0    7:0    0 489.5M  1 loop /run/archiso/sfs/airootfs
sda      8:0    1   3.8G  0 disk
└─sda1   8:1    1   3.8G  0 part /run/archiso/bootmnt

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 3.8 GiB, 4009754624 bytes, 7831552 sectors
Disk model: USB Flash Disk
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0019f505

Device     Boot Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *     2048 7831551 7829504  3.8G  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)


Disk /dev/loop0: 489.5 MiB, 513298432 bytes, 1002536 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

parted -l

Model: General USB Flash Disk (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 4010MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  4010MB  4009MB  primary  fat32        boot, lba

ls /dev/disk/*

/dev/disk/by-id:
usb-General_USB_Flash_Disk_8F1D6AB042C51894-0:0
usb-General_USB_Flash_Disk_8F1D6AB042C51894-0:0-part1

/dev/disk/by-label:
ARCH_201903

/dev/disk/by-partuuid:
0019f505-01

/dev/disk/by-path:
pci-0000:00:14.0-usb-0:2:1.0-scsi-0:0:0:0
pci-0000:00:14.0-usb-0:2:1.0-scsi-0:0:0:0-part1

/dev/disk/by-uuid:
C0FA-F820

d_fajardo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-28

Posts: 1,653

Re: [SOLVED] Arch USB can't see hard disk

How can I get arch to see my hard drive so that I can mount it?

sda1   8:1    1   3.8G  0 part /run/archiso/bootmnt

Looks like it's already mounted.

notverysmart

Member

Registered: 2019-03-30

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Arch USB can't see hard disk

That is my USB drive though, not the hard drive. My hard drive certainly has more than 3.8G of space on it.

d_fajardo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-28

Posts: 1,653

Re: [SOLVED] Arch USB can't see hard disk

I see what you mean. You meant a USB partition and this is indeed a partition inside your drive (it says 'part') configured as FAT32. I suspect you can't see the rest of the drive because it's got a Windows partition in it which means it's formatted on an NTFS file system. You need to install an extra software to view ntfs and to mount it you will need NTFS-3G package. There might be other ways of seeing the rest of your drive but that's what I can think of at the moment.

notverysmart

Member

Registered: 2019-03-30

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Arch USB can't see hard disk

Do you have any idea exactly what I have to install? On previous machines this problem hasn't occurred even straight out of the box, and on this machine installing ntfs-3g doesn't change the output of lsblk.

d_fajardo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-28

Posts: 1,653

Re: [SOLVED] Arch USB can't see hard disk

On second thoughts parted should have shown the rest of the drive. Not sure why it's not showing. Have you tried plugging it on a Windows machine to see if you can see the rest of the drive? It could also be there are errors in the drive. Are you planning to keep the Windows partition? If not, you can wipe the entire drive with wipefs first and reformat.

notverysmart

Member

Registered: 2019-03-30

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Arch USB can't see hard disk

I've booted to Windows and that works just fine, so it doesn't seem like errors in the drive. I am planning to wipe out the Windows installation, but wipefs needs me to specify a device which brings us back to the exact same problem...

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: [SOLVED] Arch USB can't see hard disk

Check your UEFI settings and try changing the AHCI mode of the drive.

---

No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

aur - dotfiles

notverysmart

Member

Registered: 2019-03-30

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Arch USB can't see hard disk

This worked! I changed the SATA controller mode from RST to AHCI and that fixed it. Thank you both very much!

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,769

Re: [SOLVED] Arch USB can't see hard disk

Glad to hear, please mark as [SOLVED] by editing the title in your first post. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … ow_to_post

Last edited by V1del (2019-03-30 10:18:21)