[RESOLVED] mke2fs does not work with WD5000YS drives

homerwsmith · Post by **homerwsmith** » 2012/12/12 23:16:25

Dear Gentle Folk,

I am running CentOS 5.8 on various different Athlon and Intel motherboards.

I recently installed 4 Western Digital WD5000YS Sata drives and found that
mke2fs would not run on them, it returns /dev/sdb1 is apparently in use by the system,
will not make a filesystem here. This is after fdisk /dev/sdb and a full reboot

1.) fdisk /dev/sdb works fine.
2.) Parted works fine including mkfs
3.) The problem exists across at least 3 different mother boards
4.) The problem did not exist with CentOS 5.3 rescue disk, or fresh install, but
once a yum update was done to 5.8, the problem manifested.
5.) The problem continues to exist with CentOS 6.x fresh install and fully updated.
6.) Other drives work fine e.g. Seagate

Any help would be appreciated

thanks in advance.

Homer W. Smith
CEO Lightlink Internet

gerald_clark · Post by **gerald_clark** » 2012/12/13 15:48:17

Had these drives been previously part of a RAID?
Show the output of fdisk -l.

homerwsmith · Post by **homerwsmith** » 2012/12/13 20:16:03

Yes, these drives were all part of a hardware raid in a dell server at one time.

They have since been removed and partitions cleared, but I have no idea
how to clear any raid imprint if that is causing the problem.

Here is the data you asked for, same error after new reboot.

Homer

[root@localhost ~]# more typescript
Script started on Thu 13 Dec 2012 08:00:37 PM EST
[root@localhost ~]# fdisk /dev/sdb

WARNING: DOS-compatible mode is deprecated. It's strongly recommended to
switch off the mode (command 'c') and change display units to
sectors (command 'u').

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000e9a82

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-60801, default 1): 1
Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (1-60801, default 60801): +1000M

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
[root@localhost ~]# mke2fs /dev/sdb1
mke2fs 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
/dev/sdb1 is apparently in use by the system; will not make a filesystem here!
[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000e9a82

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 128 1028128+ 83 Linux
[root@localhost ~]# exit

Script done on Thu 13 Dec 2012 08:01:16 PM EST
[root@localhost ~]#

homerwsmith · Post by **homerwsmith** » 2012/12/13 21:01:21

OK, this seems to have resolved the problem.

I put the errant WD5000YS back into the old dell,
and 'cleared the foreign' configuration.

mke2fs works like a charm.

Praise God for those smarter than I am.

Homer

AlanBartlett · Post by **AlanBartlett** » 2012/12/14 04:29:22

Thank you for reporting back with that good news. [img]http://www.centos.toracat.org/ajb/tmp/thumbsup.gif[/img]

So on your behalf and for posterity, this thread is now marked [RESOLVED].

CentOS