How can I "ignore"a dying hard drive?

[Scott (angrykeyboarder)]

I've got 4 identical internal drives (Maxtor 7Y25050 - 250 GB SATA
1.5GB/s - if anyone cares).

One of them is dying and has been for some time.

I've not been in the position to replace it. That will hopefully change
next week when I come into some funds.

Weeks ago I was in Windows and was warned the drive was dying (which
made sense cuz it suddenly gotten *very* slow with I/O. It was
NTFS-formatted and used for storage only. Luckily it was empty at the time.

So now the drive is completely unformatted and not being used. Windows
seems to be able to live with that just fine but Ubuntu is another story.

Every time I boot I get one or more of the following:

1) A console screen full of I/O error gibberish (why I don't know the
drive is not formatted at all).
2) Usplash starts and barely moves along. After a few minutes I'm either
thrown to the console (see above) or I actually end up at (finally!) the
GDM.
3) Usplash starts, barely moves along (maybe 1/10 of the way) and after
a few minutes I'm back at a completely blank console screen with a "__"
flashing cursor.

In all cases but #2, I have to restart the computer only to have the
same thing happen again. However *eventually* (after anywhere from say
3-10 tries) I manage to arrive at the GDM.

Yes, I know I should just replace the offending drive, but it's a
lack-o-funds thing, combined with unexpected expenses.

But it seems to me if Windows can ignore this drive, then Ubuntu should
be able to also.

Here's some more detail:

My motherboard is an ASUS A8V Deluxe with a ViA chipset.  That chipset
has an onboard SATA controller *and* a Promise 378 SATA controller.

The Promise has the bad drive plus the drive with (only) Ubuntu on it.

The ViA has Windows on one drive and a second drive formatted in NTFS
for storage.

Any suggestions as to how I can get Ubuntu to ignore the bad drive till
I can get it replaced?

Oh and here's the output of "fdisk-l" if it's any help...

Disk /dev/sda: 251.0 GB, 251000193024 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30515 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       30516   245114880    7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 251.0 GB, 251000193024 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30515 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb2   *           2       30515   245103705    5  Extended
/dev/sdb5               2       30515   245103673+   7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 251.0 GB, 251000193024 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30515 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

Disk /dev/sdd: 251.0 GB, 251000193024 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30515 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1   *           1       29759   239039136   83  Linux
/dev/sdd2           29760       30515     6072570    5  Extended
/dev/sdd5           29760       30515     6072538+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdi: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 238475 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdi2   *           2      238475   244197376    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdi5               2      238475   244197360    b  W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdj: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdj1   *           1       32636   262148638+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdj2           32637       60801   226235362+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdj5           32637       39163    52428096    b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sdj6           39164       60801   173807203+  83  Linux

----------------------------------

/dev/sdi and sdj are external drives. I have no idea why there's no
/dev/sdf-h.....



-- 
            Scott
http://angrykeyboarder.com
©2007 angrykeyboarder™ & Elmer Fudd. All Wites Wesewved

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