verdammtes ZOTAC nVidia FakeRAID!

zotacusa.com/forum/topic/3628-ionitx-de-raid-1-windows-7-dont-start/
Boot: BBS
BBS stands for BIOS Boot Specification.
MediaShield User's Guide
Source

The easiest way to get the Raidtool installed is by running the SETUP.EXE of the associated nForce chipset driver package, but by doing this all nForce IDE drivers of the package will be installed too (and maybe replace the better and currently working ones).

In these cases you have to use another way to get full access to the MediaShield/RAID software (NVIDIA Control Panel) after having completed the OS installation.

Here is the guide for the manual installation of the nForce Raidtool (on the basis of a post from nForcersHQ forums member TheMaxx32000):

• Run your just installed OS.
• Create a new folder named "RAIDTOOL" somewhere within your currently running OS partition (for example within the directory "\Program Files")
• Search for the RAIDTOOL folder of the actual 32bit/64bit XP/W2k/W2k3 nForce chipset driver package
• Extract the RAIDTOOL.cab into the just created RAIDTOOL folder of your OS partition
• Open the RAIDTOOL folder with the extracted files
• Doubleclick the REGRAID.BAT (you will find it in older Raidtools) or REGRAIDSEDONA.BAT (actual file name of the Sedona type Raidtool) to register the Raidtool Services
• Run the NVRAIDMAN.EXE (normal MediaShield) or NVCPLUI.EXE (Sedona type NVIDIA Control Panel)

Now you will see the MediaShield Control Panel. It should also appear as NVIDIA Control Panel within the Vista Control Panel, but if it doesn't, try to install nTune on top.

For further information about the abilities of the NVIDIA MediaShield software you should open the MediaShield help file (as .chm or .pdf), which you will find within the extracted raidtool files.

Suggestion: You should create shortcuts to the .EXE files of the RAIDTOOL folder and put them into your Startmenu folder. This way you will get an easy access to all services of the MediaShield/Raidtool.

Annex II

A. Tips for users with a non-Raid nForce S-ATA system:

• The actual versions of Windows XP (32/64bit) and Server 2003 (32/64bit) should be able to detect nForce S-ATA Controller connected hdd's without any 3rd party drivers, provided that you have done the needed BIOS settings (you have to choose the IDE mode of the S-ATA Controllers). So normally there is no reason to hit F6 or to integrate the nForce SATA drivers as TEXTMODE drivers.
• Nevertheless it is possible and useful to integrate the nForce SATA drivers as normal device (=PnP) drivers into an nLited CD. The way is simple: Just integrate the content of the SATA_IDE subfolder of the actual nForce chipset driver package, which is designed for the special nForce SATA chipset of your mainboard (look at NVIDIA's driver page). This PnP driver integration is very easy with nLite. Just click at one of the INF files you find within the SATA_IDE folder, it doesn't matter which one.
  
  
• New and important for users with an AHCI capable mainboard:
  Some actual nForce chipsets (for example nForce 520, nForce 630a/610a or nForce 630i/610i) have advanced S-ATA features named "AHCI". If your RAID Controllers are disabled and the S-ATA Controllers are set to "AHCI Mode" within the mainboard BIOS, the SATA drive(s) is/are not detected at the beginning of the OS installation, unless the required special nForce S-ATA drivers have been loaded or integrated as textmode drivers. Vice versa users with an AHCI supporting nForce chipset mainboard will only be able to get the actual AHCI supporting nForce S-ATA drivers installed, if the NVIDIA S-ATA Controllers are set to "AHCI Mode" within the BIOS before they are going to install the OS.
  Choice of the suitable driver and integration method:
  Users with a non-RAID, but AHCI capable nForce chipset system should look into the SATA_IDE folder of the unzipped nForce chipset driver package, which is suitable for their mainboard chipset. If you find there a file named TXTSETUP.OEM, you should integrate just the content of the SATA_IDE folder as textmode driver.
  Alternatively you can integrate the SATARAID folder (which always has a TXTSETUP.OEM) as textmode driver (similar to the instructions for real SataRaid systems), but in this case only the offered "NVIDIA nForce Storage Controller (required)" should be loaded during the textmode driver integration part of the nLite processing. Don't load the "NVIDIA RAID Class Driver (required)", if you don't have an nForce RAID.
  Attention: These options are only valid, if the NVIDIA RAID Controllers are disabled within the BIOS. Otherwise you have to use the "normal" SataRaid driver integration method as layed down above (SATARAID as textmode driver and SATA_IDE as PnP driver).
• Some mainboards (for example ASUS ones) have no SATA, but only SATARAID ports. Have a look into your mainboard manual, if you have to enable SATA and RAID within your BIOS, even when you have not built a RAID array. In this case you should integrate the SATARAID folder of the suitable nForce IDE drivers and load both "NVIDIA nForce Storage Controller" and "NVIDIA RAID Class Driver" (as written above for real nForce RAID arrays).

B. Tips for users with a SATA RAID array outside the OS partition:

• Users with an nForce Sata-RAID array, who are going to install any OS onto an IDE or non-AHCI S-ATA drive, which is outside the RAID, should not integrate any nForce SataRaid drivers. They will be able to get the OS installed without any problems.
• Once the OS is up, you should run the installer of the suitable nForce chipset driver package. After the reboot, the RAID array normally will be detected by the OS.
• If the OS should not show the RAID device and their partitions, you should do the following:
  • Open the Device Manager and check, if you see the "NVIDIA nForce RAID Controller" within the "SCSI and RAID Controllers" section. If not, you haven't enabled the NVIDIA RAID Controllers within the BIOS.
  • If you see the "NVIDIA nForce RAID Controller", you have to open the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" section and look for the "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controllers", where your RAIDed SATA hdd's are connected to. 
  • Right click onto these Controllers and do a driver software "update" until you see the compatible devices.
  • Choose the "NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controllers", if they are shown as compatible.
  • After the reboot your OS will see and will be able to work with the datas of the RAID array.

Duplicating and copying a Virtual Machine

How To: Properly Backup a VirtualBox Machine (.VDI)
This is the proper way to backup your VirtualBox Machine:
VBoxManage clonevdi source destination
Example:
VBoxManage clonevdi ~/.VirtualBox/VDI/WindowsXP.vdi ~/WindowsXP_Backup.vdi
NOTE:  Although I’m not specifically sure, sometime after Version 2 of this software, the clonedvi command has been replaced with clonehd (see page 108 of the VirtualBox Manual), however, clonedvi will still work as they kept the backwards compatibility.
Then, wait for it to complete. It may take a while depending on the size of your .vdi file (or how much space you allocated towards your virtual machine).
What this actually does is create a new UUID (Universal Unique Identifier) for the cloned VM.  This way, you won’t end up with a message similar to this:

A hard disk with UUID {4d749826-6a3f-43ff-90af-42618783bd3a} or with the
same properties (’/home/martin/.VirtualBox/VDI/test.vdi’) is already
registered.

• Shrinking a Dynamic VirtualBox Disk Image
• How To: Install VirtualBox on Fedora 11
• How To: Install VirtualBox on Ubuntu 8.04LTS

----------------------
To duplicate a VBox machine:
VBoxManage clonevdi Master.vdi Clone.vdi
and the (undocumented) function
cp Master.vdi Clone.vdi
VBoxManage internalcommands setvdiuuid Clone.vdi
which actually staffs the clone with a new SID in one step.

Must read:
How to copy (clone) a VirtualBox VDI in Ubuntu

Cloning and Copying VirtualBox virtual machines
Command line of VBox in Windows XPOpen a command prompt, cd to the c:\program files\innotek directory and launch the VBoxManage command from there. You could also add the innotek prog files directory to your path if you wanted to run the VBoxManage from any directory.

64bit guest on 32bit Linux

SourceAccording to this
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=27236
it has VT-x but is a 32 bit processor.
VirtualBox requires both 64-bit and VT-x

VirtualBox: can not register hard disk

Error: Cannot register the hard disk
When cloning VirtualBox VMs appears following error:

ERROR: Cannot register the hard disk '/home/scol/.VirtualBox/VDI/WinXP-IE7.vdi' with UUID {3858b1b1-c306-4505-8264-235af812f337} because a hard disk '/home/scol/.VirtualBox/VDI/WinXP-IE7.vdi' with UUID {3858b1b1-c306-4505-8264-235af812f337} already exists in the media registry ('/home/scol/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml')
Details: code NS_ERROR_INVALID_ARG (0x80070057), component VirtualBox... 

$ VBoxManage clonehd WinXP-IE7.vdi WinXP-IE8.vdi
A completely ambiguous error message! The solution is to provide an absolute path to the source VDI and target VDIs (leaving the path off the target will put the image in ~/.VirtualBox/HardDisks by default):

$ VBoxManage clonehd $(pwd)/WinXP-IE7.vdi $(pwd)/WinXP-IE8.vdi

pwd print working directory!!!!!!!!!!!! 
     comment:      $(pwd) and `pwd` are equivalent.
----------------------
This worked for me:
$ VBoxManage clonevdi `pwd`/SDisk.vdi `pwd`/DDisk.vdi
assuming you are in the directory for both the source and destination disk 

Better (works in a windows environment):
$ VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid Windows.vdi
where MYBox.vdi is the name of the virtual HD I copied 

The bug is still present in 3.0.8 and combined with the very ambigous error message it does create a real bad user experience.

Clone tool for VDI files

Source

A clone tool for VDI files (no other format currently supported) that runs on Windows. Now, I've tested this application on Ubuntu 9.04 with Wine 1.1.29 and it ran without issues. This does NOT mean that Mpack supports Linux or Wine in any way (it may change in the future). It's just a coincidence that it works. Users who don't like the command line, or aren't skilled with it, can use this tool with Wine (see http://www.winehq.org for downloads).

The tool can be found here:

CloneVDI - Discussion and Support

by mpack » 15. Sep 2009, 23:13

Many Windows users dislike the fact that you currently have to use the Command Prompt to clone VDI files. Also, questions often arise related to VDI files such as "how do I increase the maximum size of a VDI?" or "how can I make my dynamic VDI file small again?". As a recent vacation project I decided to try to write a nice simple tool that provided a good answer to all of these questions. Hopefully I succeeded.

Attached to this message is a zip file containing the software tool that I wrote, which I call "CloneVDI" (currently at version 2.02). Features as of this release include:

• Reads VDI,VHD,VMDK,Parallels HDD,RAW files and physical drives, writes VDI.
• A simple GUI Interface.
• A CLI interface too (for people who like that kind of thing!)
• Ability to compact (discard unused blocks from) the clone, with no need to run sdelete/zerofree first.
• Ability to enlarge the maximum size of a virtual disk, optionally enlarging the main partition too.
• User choice to either keep the old UUID or generate a new one for the clone.
• Some useful diagnostics about the source VDI, such as the partition map and the internal fileystem.
• Better feedback while cloning: a progress bar and an estimated time to completion.
• It seems to be significantly faster than "VBoxManage clonehd".
• Open source.

To install, simply create a folder and unpack the zip contents into it. Optionally, you can create a shortcut to link your desktop to the CloneVDI.exe file in the target folder. The zip file includes release notes which hopefully provides answers to all of your questions.

Note that this tool is not simply a GUI front end for VBoxManage. Instead it uses my own code to read and write VDI files (and other formats), and therefore works in a rather different way, with different features and capabilities.
[ last release edit: 1st Mar. CloneVDI attachment updated to v2.02. Fixed another bug in "enlarge partition" feature, completed French language support. ]
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v2.02 source code can now be found attached to the next message.
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Attachments

CloneVDI-exe-2.02.zip

CloneVDI v2.02, executable with release notes.

(119.2 KiB) Downloaded 12012 times

dmRAID on Ubuntu

with SATA fakeraid

Filed under: Linux — bbossola @ 7:40 pm
Tags: Linux

The problem
Ubuntu (and Debian) doesn’t have support for the SATA RAID (also called FakeRAID since some of the functionality is provided by software) controllers being shipped on recent motherboards. The software to handle FakeRAID arrays in Linux is DMRAID. How do I install such systems?
Preliminary Operations
You will need to configure your RAID using the bios utility (Ctrl+M for me on startup) : just select your disks, create the logical unit selecting your desired raid mode (0 or 1 for me), save and boot with a desktop live CD.
Note: in this example I’m using Fujitsu Siemens Primergy RX100 S4 equipped with two 160Gb SATA drives, and I’m creating a RAID0 array, with Ubuntu Linux 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon
1st phase – create your partitions
To create your partitions you’ll need that your RAID is reconized from your system. Unfortunately, at the time I’m writing, Ubuntu does not include DMRAID support in its install procedure, so you’ll need to start with a live CD, activate DMRAID support and proceed to partitioning.

• start your system with an Ubuntu Desktop CD (select your language if needed)
• open a terminal (CTRL-ALT-F1), set a new root password wih “sudo passwd root”
• go on with “su – ” (digit your password)
• edit /etc/apt/sources.list, uncomment universe packages
• “apt-get update”
• install dmraid: “apt-get install dmraid”
• Launch fdisk specifying the shorter device you find under /dev/mapper/dxxx (dxxx is the file device with shorted name, es.: dxxxa28 is the correct one, dxxxa281 the wrong one)
• create a primary partition of 316GB, the other with the remaining space (we’ll use it for swap)
  • n
  • p
  • 1
  • +316GB

• create a primary partition with the remaining space:
  • n
  • p
  • 2

• change second partition type:
  • t
  • 2
  • 82

• save with “w”,
• restart your system with “reboot”

2nd phase – installing a minimal ubuntu
To format your partitions you’ll need DMRAID module loaded. So you’ll need to repeat the first six previous steps.

• format your root partition
  • mkfs -t ext3 /dev/mapper/dxxx1 (select the device ending with 1)

• prepare a local area for the installation procedure: create a local folder, mount your formatted partition on that folder, bind and mount the necessary stuff
  • mkdir /target
  • mount /dev/mapper/dxxx1 /target
  • mkdir /target/dev
  • mount  – - bind /dev/ /target/dev
  • mkdir /target/proc
  • mount -t proc proc /target/proc
  • mkdir /target/sys
  • mount -t sysfs sys /target/sys

• proceed installing a minimal ubuntu
  • apt-get install debootstrap
  • debootstrap gutsy /target

• copy essential files on your partition
  • cp /etc/apt/sources.list /target/etc/apt/
  • cp /etc/resolv.conf /target/etc/
  • cp /etc/hosts /target/etc/
  • cp /etc/network/interfaces /target/etc/network/

• switch on your new system, re-mount /proc, /sys, /dev
  • mount  – - bind /dev/ /target/dev
  • mount -t proc proc /target/proc
  • mount -t sysfs sys /target/sys
  • chroot /target

• install a basic ubuntu system
  • apt-get update
  • apt-get install language-pack-en
  • apt-get install ubuntu-standard linux-generic dmraid grub

• create a user, if you want
  • useradd pippo
  • passwd pippo
  • mkdir /home/pippo
  • chown pippo /home/pippo

• set root password
  • passwd root

3rd phase – boot loader configuration
Yes, you’ll need to configure grub

• copy grub essential files
  • mkdir /boot/grub
  • cp /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/stage1 /boot/grub/
  • cp /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/stage2 /boot/grub/
  • cp /usr/lib/grub/-pc/* /boot/grub/
    This will copy the staging file for the various filesystem in your boot partition. In my example the directory is “/usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/” and the files that are copied are “e2fs_stage1_5″, “jfs_stage1_5″,…

• configure di grub
  • grub (enters grub interactive shell)
  • device (hd0) /dev/mapper/dxxx (the shorter, so the logical disk, not the partition)
  • root (hd0,0)
  • setup (hd0)
  • quit (exit from grub shell)
  • update-grub (update grub files)

• configure grub menu
  • edit grub menu.lst: “vi /boot/grub/menu.lst”
  • check groot is pointing to hd0,0 (it should be necessary to uncomment that line)
  • check that savedefault is commented (normally is)
  • modify, inside “kernel” items, the “root” value to “/dev/mapper/dxxx1″ (your root partition)

• configure static mount under /etc/fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
#
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/mapper/ddf1_LogicalDrive_01 / ext3 defaults 0 1
/dev/mapper/ddf1_LogicalDrive_02 none swap sw 0 0

• reboot

Bottom line
Well, you’ve done! Remember that if you mounted a RAID0 device Linux at startup will probe your disks and he’ll wrongly detect a bad partition table: ignore error messages http://osdir.com/ml/linux.ataraid/2006-10/msg00019.html
Little tips:

• if you need to reconfigure your keyboard use:
  http://www.basictrading.biz/2006/12/08/ubuntu-server-keyboard/ (“dpkg-reconfigure console-setup”)

• if you need to reconfigure your locale:
  http://blog.andrewbeacock.com/2007/01/how-to-change-your-default-locale-on.html

• if you need to change hostname:
  “vi edit /etc/hostname” (reboot)
  
• if you need to check swap status:
  http://elleuca.blogspot.com/2006/11/swappature.html
  (” swapon -s”)

Links
tecnicambalandia..ubuntu-desktop-live-cd-and-fakeraid
tecnicambalandia...dmraid disk failure-howto rebuild new
Running-ubuntu-gnulinux-on-a-fakeraid1-mirroring-array
www.ubuntu-in.org/wiki/SATA_RAID_Howto
help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto
salaros.blogspot.com/,,installare-ubuntu-704-su-raid0-in-dual

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How to use the Toshiba HDD Recovery Utility

Source

Some Toshiba notebook computer models have a Toshiba HDD Recovery Utility, which is stored in a special partition on the hard disk drive, along with the system files used for the 'recovery' of the hard disk drive to its original just-from-the-factory default state (contents). "HDD" in the name of this utility stands for hard disk drive. This on-disk utility is  alternative to the Recovery CD or DVD included with many other Toshiba notebook  models. The following instructions describe how to use this utility.

NOTE: Toshiba strongly recommends that you create recovery CDs / DVDs after installing your computer.

The HDD Recovery Utility allows you to:

• Create Hard Drive Recovery CDs or DVDs. 
• Restore your hard disk drive to the original factory default state. 
• Restore just your "C:" drive, leaving any other drive volumes or partitions you may have created intact. 
• Restore your hard disk drive to the original factory default state, but without the recovery partition. 
• Delete your hard disk drive recovery partition without losing the data on your C: drive. 
• Reinstall drivers and applications which were bundled with your computer.

Creating Recovery CDs/DVDs
Copying the Toshiba HDD Recovery Utility and the needed system files to a CD or a DVD improves the chance of being able to restore the original factory default state of your hard disk drive in case of failure. It allows you to use the space occupied by the special recovery partition used to store the Toshiba HDD Recovery Utility on the computers hard disk drive.

 

1. Double-click the "Recovery Disc Creator" icon on the Windows desktop.
   This utility may also be launched by clicking Start --> All Programs --> Hard Disk Recovery Utilities.
2. Select CD, DVD, or All Files (to create Recovery media on both CDs and DVDs).
   
    
    Sample Recovery Disc Creator screen
   
3. Select the items you want to copy by clicking the checkbox next to an item's name - recovery files, applications (original bundled drivers and applications), or both the recovery files and applications.
4. Click "Burn".
5. Insert a CD or a DVD into your computer's CD/DVD writable drive, when the utility prompts for it.
   The utility will prompt for as many CDs or DVDs required to contain the selected files. If your CD or DVD drive does not support writing, contact Toshiba Customer Support to obtain Recovery CDs or DVDs for your computer.
6. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the copy process.

For instructions on using the Recovery CDs/DVDs, see the section below titled "Hard Disk Drive Recovery using Recovery CDs or DVDs".