Zip Drive (/dev/sda4) has gone missing!

[Cuddles]

Okay, here's the problem:

I've been using an external zip drive (parallel port) for a few weeks now, and it's been working fine. Popped in a disk this morning, and I get the message "mount: special device /dev/sda4 does not exist". Checking in /dev, and sure enough, there's sda1-3, and 5-15, but no 4!

I've searched dmesg and /var/log/messages, NO clues there at all. The disk (I've tried several) is fine, works great on another system. Tried mknod, which says it's creating the device file, but then when I check, it's STILL not there.

Can someone PLEASE tell me how to fix this?

[NeddySeagoon]

Cuddles,

/dev/sda4 is a partition on your first SCSI drive (parallel port ZIP may well look like that)
There is no reason for you to have 4 partions, or more. It looks like you have a static /dev, since yo have 15 partitions.

remake the node with makenod (See man makenod)
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[Cuddles]

I've tried that Neddy. No joy. It CLAIMS it's making the device (I'm using udev, btw), but the device still isn't there!

/about to pull out my hair over this, or switch to a new distro...

[NeddySeagoon]

Cuddles,

Are you using the udev tarball?
look in /etc/conf.d/rc ?

There is something wrong with your /dev management - unless your really have 15 partitions on /dev/sda.
That makes me think that udev (or devfs) have failed and the init scripts have reverted to a get you going static /dev/.

Watch the boot messages carefully. Right at the start is says
Mounting /dev for .... ?
So you get a warning about udev and devfs not being used ?

Poking udev is harmless - try udevstart
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.