# [Solved] Harddrive error failed to IDENTIFY

## silwerspawn

Hey everyone.

I get this error after updating the gentoo kernel:

```
ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m1024@0xfebffc00 port 0xfebffd00 irq 1275

ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m1024@0xfebffc00 port 0xfebffd80 irq 1275

ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m1024@0xfebffc00 port 0xfebffe00 irq 1275

ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m1024@0xfebffc00 port 0xfebffe80 irq 1275

ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

ata1.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)

ata1.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)

ata1: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs

ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

ata1.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)

ata1.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)

ata1: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs

ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

ata1.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)

ata1.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)

ata1: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs

ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

ata2: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

ata2.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)

ata2.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)

ata2: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs

ata2: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

ata2.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)

ata2.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)

ata2: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs

ata2: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

ata2.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)

ata2.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)

ata2: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs

ata2: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

ata3: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

ata3.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)

ata3.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)

ata3: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs

ata3: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

ata3.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)

ata3.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)

ata3: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs

ata3: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

ata3.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)

ata3.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)

ata3: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs

ata3: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

ata4: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

ata4.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)

ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)

ata4: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs

ata4: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

ata4.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)

ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)

ata4: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs

ata4: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

ata4.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)

ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)

ata4: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs

ata4: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

sata_promise 0000:04:00.0: version 2.11

```

This did not happen on my olderkernel, and i cannot get on the drives anymore.

please help im lost on this subject!?Last edited by silwerspawn on Tue Jun 03, 2008 8:57 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## radagast

what was your old kernel, and what's the new one?

i assume you can see all the drives from a liveCD - do an lspci from there (or knoppix).  maybe the new kernel has slightly different drivers for your motherboard, and you haven't compiled them in.

that's my first guesses...

----------

## silwerspawn

the old kernel it the:

2.6.23-r9 from the gentoo sources

every kernel above that makes the mess i have tried:

2.6.24-r5

2.6.24-r8

2.6.25-r4

if i run lspci i get:

```
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RD580 [CrossFire Xpress 3200] Chipset Host Bridge

00:02.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI-X Root Port

00:04.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge

00:06.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge

00:12.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA

00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI0)

00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI1)

00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI2)

00:13.3 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI3)

00:13.4 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI4)

00:13.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB Controller (EHCI)

00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 14)

00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE

00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia

00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge

00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge

00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration

00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map

00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller

00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV44 [GeForce 6200 LE] (rev a1)

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82572EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper) (rev 06)

03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 01)

04:00.0 Mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc. PDC20518/PDC40518 (SATAII 150 TX4) (rev 02)

04:01.0 Mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc. 20269 (rev 02)

04:02.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev c0)

04:03.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8110SC/8169SC Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)

```

I do a copy of my config file from the old one and copy it into the new ones, run a make menuconfig to check if everything is okay.

i found that some running fedora got it to work by turning on"smp" and noapic off. I think i know what it is but i dont know what its called in the kernel.

----------

## radagast

SMP is 

processor type and features | symmetric multi-processing support

i turned it on when i got my dual-core AM2

i also have turned on SMT (hyperthreading) and Multi-core scheduler 

(i'm using kernel 2.6.23-r8, so if it's going to be a problem for me i haven't found that out yet - maybe you're saving me the pain)

noapic i think is a boot parameter, set in /boot/grub/grub.conf

and to add another acronym to your list, you could try disabling AHCI in your bios.  a quick search suggests a history of driver trouble with your SB600 SATA controller...

any more luck?

----------

## silwerspawn

I will try playing around with i today.

I will see what i can do.

----------

## gerard27

Hi silwerspawn,

I had a similar problem.

It probably has to do with how your  bios is set.

On my asus mobo ami-bios there is a choice [quote]

Normal IDE,AHCI,RAID.[/quote

I had it set to Normal IDE.

After changing it to AHCI there is still an error about a nonexistent disk,

but it runs ok.

I have a different mobo but judging by the bugreports this seems to happen a lot.

In my case There was another problem:After changing to AHCI the harddisks were

named differently!

/dev/sdb became /dev/sdc and /dev/sdb is now the nonexistent disk.

Gerard.

----------

## silwerspawn

Okay i got the problem fixed.

I went into the bios and in chipset features i found where you can enable the sata an set it for 4 different types.

Native IDE

Raid

something

AHCI

i choose the AHCI (desperate)

I loaded up my old 2.6.23 kernel and changed the grub.conf like this

```

default 0

timeout 3

splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Gentoo Linux Kernel 2.6.25-r9

root (hd0,0)

kernel /boot/2.6.25-gentoo-r4 root=/dev/hda3 noapic acpi=off pci=nomsi

```

Maybe this is a little overkill  :Cool: 

and recompiled my kernel with SMP (Symmetric multi-processing suppert) build in to the kernel.

i have turned off SMT (Hyperthreading) scheduler support, Only Pentium 4 runs with this.

found under processor types and features.

and recompiled the kernel. (the rest is the old config file from kernel 2.6.23-r9)

This worked like a charm...

I will play a little around with it sometime later and update it, now its time for the rest of the kernel to be configured.

and thanks for the help guys (or girls).

By the way, it looks like that i have a drive table 1.4 on this mobo, and there are some other problems with the 1.1, maybe try updating the bios, i did that some time ago, dont know if that affected the drive table, did not check it at that time.

----------

## silwerspawn

To Gerard van Vuuren

this is a little off topic.

I found an error (or something) on some of the older mainboards, this affects the sata and the IDE, like when you choose to run Only sata you need to deactivate the IDE and the other way around else only half the sata ports work. eventhou that the manual says you can run with all the of them at the same time.

I never got it to work.

----------

## gerard27

Hi silwerspawn,

Here's some more off-topic.

Well mine is an Asus P5W DH.Bought it a year ago.

There is a thread on this board.At the time it was one of the most 

expensive Asus boards.Boy am I sorry I bought it!

When I changed from Normal IDE to AHCI win XP refused to boot!

The board came with a cd,on it a driver for the Intel 975 chip.

I installed the driver but that didn't help.

In order to run windows I had to change the bios back again.

Since I don't use it anyway I decided to wipe it off the disk and use

this space for something else.

I am 81.Been in electronics all my life.I am amazed at what is possible

these days.But I am quite annoyed by some of the stupid things manufacturers

do some times.

Like my printer:I have to make sure it's turned off when I start the computer

otherwise I have to wait 4 or 5 minutes for the bios to detect a USB drive!

And this Epson printer will only work when connected to the first USB channel

regardless wether in Linux or windows.

Well that's enough rant for the day.

See you,

Gerard.

----------

## radagast

so is that a photo of you from 1910, Gerard?

that's great.

andrwe

----------

## gerard27

@radgast,

What school taught you arithmetic?

Gerard.

----------

## radagast

oh sorry, us kids don't learn maths any more.

when i was at school i got one of those fancy calculators that did sin and cos.

i meant to say,

so is that a photo of you from Now()-81+5, Gerard?

----------

## gerard27

Is your avatar from when Frankenstein created you?

----------

## radagast

it's meant to be an homage to MCEscher

but from ten years ago when i had time to do homages

----------

## silwerspawn

 *Gerard van Vuuren wrote:*   

> Hi silwerspawn,
> 
> Here's some more off-topic.
> 
> Well mine is an Asus P5W DH.Bought it a year ago.
> ...

 

Yes. some of the thinges is very off in the construction.

Im am a Colleage student in Robotics Technologies, and i think they are sometimes completely off by some things.

the usb problem in the bios is because you have Legacy USB turned on. turning if off will make it drop any USB checks.

anyways

On-topic

I have testet it and everything seems to work perfect with the setup earlier.

and i can't leave out anything.

I have tried to turn on AHCI support in the kernel too and it still works fine.

It is actually about 30 sec faster at bootup now. so im positive about the result.

----------

## gerard27

Hi silwerspawn,

Thanks for the tip!

It was set to auto I set it to off.

Now I can boot without any delay when the printer is on.

Gerard.

Edit:When set to off it will render booting from USB stick impossible.

----------

