I am honestly at the end of my tether, emailing you is my last option is that I hope that I might finally get a response.

I am a NEW CUSTOMER. I have no been without a telephone and internet connection for five days, that an engineer may come in 5 days time, and that there is no known time for how long before you connect me.

Obviously; please do NOT email me back – I cannot access my email. Please call me on [number redacted].

Trying to call your team puts me through to a call center, who ignore everything I say – and tell me that there is no problem on my line; and put me through to faults.
I know this is not the case, your UK management team told me so. Of course, I have no way to contact them directly.

I’ll explain the course of events so far;

Wednesday 29th June – I call to arrange a my telephone being connected and to also connect my broadband at the same time. I’m given a date of the 11th July.
I then call my broadband supplier (Eclipse) and am told I need a DFQ number before broadband can go live.
I phone BT back and ask for this number. I am told I didn’t ask specifically enough for a ‘Simultaneous Transfer’ and have to cancel the order and start again.
This also cancels my appointment, but I given the 18th by Stuart.

I do not know the exact terms that your team use! I complain and Ranjit (Stuart’s Supervisor), manages to get a date of the 6th July. I rejoice.

Wednesday 6th July - I move in (very early so I am on time for Openreach) and wait for an engineer to arrive. Engineer does not arrive.
I receive a text message saying that an Engineer did not need to come to my property (so I woke up at 5am for nothing).
I call your normal 0800 number, am told there is no problem, and must be with me. I explain that no engineer came here.
A fault is reported and I am told an Engineer would be sent out Thursday morning instead.

I’m also told that if it is found that the problem is with my line; I will be charged £130.
I argue this, since I am already paying £130 for connection; and no engineer even turned up.

Thursday 7th July - I wait for an engineer to arrive at 8am again, one day after moving house. Engineer does not arrive.
I call up again, many many times and no-one seems to even know of the fault at all.
Many phone calls later and I am told that no Engineer was even sent.

I am told that Mr. Tusumo would call me back later that day.
No-one calls back.

I call back, and no-one has even heard of Mr. Tusumo, and no-one is aware of any problems on my line.
After many more calls I am put through to a ’supervisor’ – Pratiksha – who said she would call me back the next day.

Friday 8th July -
Pratiksha does not call back

I call again and surprisingly am put through to Ranjit again! Finally he looks into the problem, and then goes home.
I’m given a call by Atmed that I do need an engineer, no-one from Openreach has connected me, and the earliest he can do so is next Saturday.

I’m very unhappy since this is now 10 days from when Ranjit said my line would be installed.

Saturday 9th July - I call again on the number Pratiksha gives me to check this is all okay and to ask for some compensation or access to BT Fon/Openzone.
It turns out to be the same number, apart from this time it costs me 45p/min to call.

I ask to speak to someone about the on-going problem with my phone line.
I am told that “there are no problems on my line, I will put you through to report a new fault”.

I explain that he obviously does not have access to all the notes on my accounts, and could he put me through to their UK team.
I’m told that there is no UK team, but someone would call me back.

Sunday 10th July
No-one calls back! No-one responds to my emails or phone calls. I begin misplacing marbles.

So…

• It seems your call center team is NOT aware of any problems on my line.
  • I’m simply put through to report a new fault every time, despite other teams knowing about the problem
• I’ve been told all of the following from different people;
  • the order went through, but is not activated
  • the line is active, but not provisioned
  • openreachs’ website says the order is not finished
  • my phone line is active, and there are no problems and do I want to report a fault
• Your management team is aware of a problem, but I cannot contact them in any way, and they refuse to give out a direct number
• I have been told it is Openreach who has not connected me at the exchange – and that an engineer will be coming next Saturday.
  • Given that three engineers have not turned up already, I’m not convinced that anyone will arrive
  • This will be 17 days after I placed my order before anyone even looks at it
  • No-one can tell me when my phone line may work

That leaves me:

• unable to make any phone calls without hanging out of my upstairs window
• my only method of internet is hanging a 3G dongle on a mop handle out of the window, and constantly refreshing pages
• I am completely unable to contact you and find out the status of my problem
• I am spending lots of money on needless phone calls because your staff refuse to call back
• my problem will not even be looked at until next week
• no-one even seems to know what the problem is, and instead are just throwing engineers at the problem, who don’t turn up

I realise I have no choice but to wait for your company; since you have such a monopoly on the phone lines.

However, I’ve paid a lot of money to be connected and this is not happening. I am now without a phone line for more than 10 days, and will soon have to go back home to my parents (over 100 miles away) just to be able to live.

Please can you get someone to call me urgently and;

• explain what the problem is – is it your sales staff, openreach, or a problem here?
• give me a number I can call, to a team who is aware of the problem (and doesn’t tell me there is no issue)
• fix my phone line as an urgent matter

I would appreciate some sort of compensation for paying £130 for an engineer not to turn up three times.

I would also appreciate some compensation for the work that I cannot do.
I’m losing £125 a day from my customers, for the minimum of ten days you say this may take, I am out of pocket by £1250, plus the cost of telephone calls to BT using my mobile phone. One month line rental does not even come close to how much you’ve cost me.

I would also appreciate access to BT Openzone or BT Fon, so at least I can check my emails for urgent problems.

I have been VERY patient with BT but I am honestly now at the end of my tether.

My last option with BT is that I hope that I might finally get a response by contacting you directly.

Yours,

Monkeyboi

]]> http://www.monkeyboi.com/blog/archives/6566/feed 0 http://www.monkeyboi.com/blog/archives/6563 http://www.monkeyboi.com/blog/archives/6563#comments Sat, 16 Apr 2011 10:36:29 +0000 monkeyboi http://www.monkeyboi.com/blog/?p=6563 Dear Graham, the Chief Executive of the Nationwide Buildings Society.

I complained to your staff on the 13th. I was told I’d receive a call back that morning.

I’ve phoned, emailed, and sent messages on your online banking.

Take a wild guess if I received anything back whatsoever?

Need a hint? It’s the same response I’d give if you’d asked if I’ll be banking with you in a month.

Since your staff are so inept that they can’t manage to call me back – and you’re too cheap to let your management have phone lines (I’m presuming they don’t have opposable thumbs and cannot answer telephones), I’m forwarding my complaint onto you.

If you are too busy playing golf, or perhaps your overpaid secretary/mistress is busy spending your £1780/day salary (don’t worry, I won’t tell Marie… your wife? remember?), I’ll look forward to discussing this with the FSA.

Yours,

Monkeyboi

Officially announces that today shall be declared iPhone Joke Day. Hope owners can take it in jest; well they did buy one. #ipjd

Why did the chicken cross the road? He was trying to get a signal on his iPhone 4. #ipjd

BBC News: Police find 3 of Raoul Moat’s mobile phones. Two have been charged, but they’re holding his iPhone until they get a signal. #ipjd

Orange and Apple will make a great pear for the iPhone. #ipjd

I just heard about the new iPhone rickroll virus, they should be ashamed. Honestly, you know the rules, and so do I. #ipjd

40 attempted suicides at the iPhone factory – have they got an app for it now? #ipjd

Apples new app which lets you order a pizza, anywhere, from your iPhone. Strange, my phone already does this. #ipjd

Apple is about to give away two yoghurt pots and some string to all iPhone 4 users #ipjd

A local apple store was burgled for over 10k of merchandise. Police remain hopeful they can find and return both computers. #ipjd

iPhone share prices decreasing? Mmmmm… I do love to see an Apple Crumble. #ipjd

First the iPhone was left in a bar and now the bars have left the iPhone. #ipjd

Free iPad for all iPhone users. Just hold it closer to your face, simulating not being able to make calls by holding it. #ipjd

Apple: “”We tested the handsets with Jeremy Beadle, Stephen Hawking and Abu Hamza and no problems with signal were reported”" #ipjd

The iPhone killer: A Nokia strapped to a large hammer. #ipjd

I can’t believe Steve Jobs’s liver is replaceable but the battery in the iPhone is not. #ipjd

Apple issue fix for iPhone 4: Hold your penis with your other hand. #ipjd

The England team are expected to get a great reception upon their return… none of them have an iPhone. #ipjd

Only 0.55% of customers have called about the iPhone signal problem… Maybe the rest can’t get through? #ipjd

BBC NEWS: Apple advises on holding iPhone. I think theres an appendage for that. #ipjd

The iPhone. The only mobile with a name as self-obsessed as its users. #ipjd

I’ve still got plenty more, so iPhone Joke Day will continue tomorrow. Some good ones coming, I promise. #ipjd

So Steve Jobs said there is NO problem with the iPhone 4 antenna, which is why he is giving everyone a free case… #ipjd

iPhone Joke days continues! So far there’s only 1 person not realising that it’s a joke (by which I refer to the day, and to Apple) #ipjd

Two iPhone’s got married. It was a lovely ceremony, but the reception was awful… Apparently they held it in the wrong place. #ipjd

iPhone owners: Use the Built-in Compass and GPS to find the nearest public phone box. #ipjd

The founder of Apple just walked into the house and took all our Mr Sheen! Bloody Jobs, coming over here and stealing our polish. #ipjd

iPhone 4: Put your calls on hold simply by holding the phone. #ipjd

The iPhone 4 has a built in feature that stops smudge marks on the chrome finish. If you touch it it shorts out and loses signal. #ipjd

0.55% with dropped calls? That’s only 16,500 people that complained! About the same chance of having it nicked from your car. #ipjd

Life was much more simpler when apple and blackberry were just Mr. Kiplings pie fillings. #ipjd

Bill Gates has recently hired polish people to kidnap the CEO of Apple. He’s heard they are really good at taking Jobs. #ipjd

Around 1 person in 10 is homosexual. About 1 person in 10 uses an Apple. It’s a coincidence. Honestly. #ipjd

Apple are making a black AND a white version of the iPhone? That’s very PC. #ipjd

0.55% of all iPhone 4 users complained about antenna or reception. I don’t think it mentioned the other 99.45% that can’t call in. #ipjd

Already been screwed by Apple? That’s okay, they’re giving you a condom to fix it now. #ipjd

Just bought an iPod Touch. It’s just like an iPhone, but you can’t make calls… No, wait, it’s exactly like an iPhone. #ipjd

Apple announce that if you purchase a new iPhone 4 they will throw in a free blackberry so you can make a call #ipjd

Technically shoplifting an iPhone from their official shop only counts as scrumping. #ipjd

Problems with your iPhone? Don’t touch it in the sensitive area. Perverts. #ipjd

New iPhone advert – deaf couples can (finally) use Video Chat! Those who can’t afford £1/min can just send texts. #ipjd

WORST #ipjd joke: Is your iPhone broken? No bubbles when washing your cornea? Oh, wait, no, sorry. You’ve purchased a bad eye foam. #ipjd

Done with iPhone jokes! You want one compliment? At lreast tghe toiuchsxcreenb keytpadf isd reaslklyt accuyraterf abnd eadsy toi usre. #ipjd

I hope this email finds you well, and that you have been having a delightful weekend.

In regards to our previous conversations, I happily received two Tesco “Giftcards”, each labelled being worth five Great British Pounds to your company, in refund for the money that went missing from my Tesco Internet Phone account.

If you recall, I was promised three times I’d receive a cheque. Many weeks later, I hadn’t and contacted you again. I emailed quite a few times to your complaints department, in fact. After emailing you, you promised you’d send the gift cards, which I can confirm I have received.

I happily jogged down to the local Tesco store, a mere two-and-a-half miles from my home, an easy amount of exercise when travelling in a car. I wandered around your delightful shop, and purchased the provisions I required for the week, happy in the knowledge that I could pay for these with a gift card, to refund the existing credit I had on my recently closed Tesco Internet Phone.

Which is a shame, because I enjoyed having my Tesco Internet Phone. It was very useful for making and receiving calls (something which my recently purchased Apple Smartphone has been unable to do). However, the annoying loss of a phone number and contacting dozens of people to update them with my new number, and replacing all my business cards – was easily outweighed by the refund of my credit.

I guess you must be in a similar situation, You agreed to sign up with Freshtel to provide this telephone service under contract, and they’ve been so rude as to go bankrupt. I’m amazed they managed to go bankrupt when still had the few quid left on my account.  Did they refund you as well?

Anyway, I digress. I took my provisions around a trip around your Clacton store, making sure my purchases could enjoy the sights of the numerous metal cages that adorn your wonderful shop. I happily slalomed around the staff, who were unaware that there might be shoppers around during opening hours. I like to think they enjoyed the noise of the crunching of discarded Wotsits as they squished under the soft, wobbly tyres of the uniquely-designed Tesco shopping cart.

Again, I digress. I’m sure you can understand how I am quite distracted from the evenings’ entertainment that is navigating my local supermarket! I apologise profusely! I know you are a busy man. On carrying my goods to your electronic tills – unfortunately all your staff were busy, somehow six computer terminals seem to move quicker than nearly 40 old-fashioned manual lines. They also have been uniquely developed to entertain us with their quips; such as “Please place the item in the bagging area”! You guys have such an amusing sense of humour! Why haven’t you replaced all the tills with these entertaining and very functional machines yet?

Anyhow, digressing again, I scanned all my produce and used the Gift Cards you delightfully sent me to replace the funds that were missing in my account. Some people might complain that it’s unfair to refund my credit in anything other in cash. Perhaps some might think I would choose not to use Tesco since they signed up to a company that couldn’t provide a profitable telephone service, but thankfully I am not that vindictive.

I was shocked to find that the Gift Cards you send did not work. There was a message on-screen about the gift cards not having any credit. I presumed this was one of your subtle jokes, so I called over one of your many helpful checkout staff, who can be found chatting to other members of staff, usually around the pharmaceutical aisles. They delighted in pretending to ignore me! How humourous! I laughed like a drain!

I explained where I received the cards from, and on the third attempt; she seemed to understand that these were not bought and were sent to me. I hope you don’t mind, but I gave your name – Terry Leahy – to them. Something seemed to click – I think they might remember you!

I must admit, I did lie to them, slightly. I explained these were sent to me after a complaint. I wasn’t sure if your staff would know what Tesco Internet Phone was; (when I tried to top up last time, they joked that they’d never heard of it!). It didn’t seem necessary to explain where they came from, nor who you were in the circumstances.

On calling another member of your delightful checkout staff (who also played the same prank of ignoring the help request! I’m so glad your staff are so quick-witted! It seems to be only the women that do this; isn’t that a bit sexist? Are your male staff not allowed a sense of humour?). It was finally explained that gift cards are actually worthless, unless there is some money on them.

This makes perfect sense! Though I was a bit surprised. I probably should’ve asked you about this first.

I paid for my items with alternative methods, then stood in the spacious area as I waited for a slew of receipts came flying from the machine; all explaining that “The following gift card cannot be used”. I loved how there was a separate receipt for each and every time the voucher was tried! Apart from this keeping me busy for a few minutes while I tried to find a non-violent way to exit your store, I’m afraid it might have also used the entire world reserves of receipt paper.

Forgive me for not asking before – but these gift cards you’ve sent; would you perhaps mind putting some money on them, in refund for the money on my now-disabled Tesco Internet Phone account?

I’m a businessman myself, and I understand the need to make as much profit as possible, but I’d prefer to have the money I paid back. Whether that’s with Tesco or not. Thankfully I’m not particularly litigious, and I do enjoy circumnavigating a small store. As a side note, perhaps you could provide GPS?

If you wish, I’ll happy visit the store and explain the real reason of what happened; and of course explain to your staff who you are!

Please, please, if you do speak to your staff; offer my compliments to the small number of staff over their fantastic sense of humour of pretending to ignore customers and other staff, and to the store as well – the orange crisp tinge strewn across the tiles is a lovely effect! Of course, there’s a number of your staff that you should really talk to. They’re working far too hard for the amount of money they’re paid! How have you managed to convince them of this? I’d love to know how you’re motivating them? Is it torture? It’s torture isn’t it?

Please keep it up, and I look forward to receiving some working Gift Cards.

Thanks,

I run a software company based in the East of England, and we’re very interested to see that you’ve introduced new terms into your iPhone contracts regarding tracking and location information.

We’d like to approach to work with you with this data. We’ve been interested for a long time in tracking technologies, but the cost of tracking hardware has made this prohibitively expensive.

Naturally, we want to avoid the legal difficulties of the Data Protection Act, so the fact that you anonymise this data is very interesting to us. It solves a lot of legal and privacy problems! I’m sure you want to avoid any legal difficulties, not least of all after the ‘Aerialgate’ scandal! As an aside, I’m very impressed with the way you’ve managed to ensure your users believe there is no fault; yet you’re offering a case to ‘fix’ the non-existent problem. This must be costing a lot of money, but is a wonderful piece of PR!

We’d be interested in collating this data, but we have some questions first;

• Is tracking only done with the location system on the iPhone, or do you also collect data from AGPS, GPS and cell-tower triangulation too?
• Is the anonymous data entirely anonymous? I presume there’s no need for Data Protection involvement since it contains no personal information
• Is location data grouped by customer?

If this is the case, we’d be very interested in working with you. We’d like to develop a system where users visiting and paying for our service would be able to ‘pick’ a customer by selecting a number of locations that their ‘target’ has been seen in. Then from this, we could ensure this is a unique user, and display their currently location.

This could be perhaps a husband or wife; selecting their home and work addresses, ensuring there it is the person they want to locate. Or perhaps it could be a person who has seen someone they like a number of times, can pinpoint the location and times they’ve seen them, and find the user, anonymously, that way. Their current location could then be gathered from your collected data, and shown using mapping software.

We’d be really interested in progressing with this as early as possible. Please feel free to contact me by email, via our website, or by telephone. I look forward to hearing from you!

Thanks,

Dug Stokes
frag.co.uk Director

I called O2 (since they provide my mobile phone contract), and they advised me that they have a Fair Use Policy. I gave them full details of how much bandwidth I use – around 60GB during the day over a month, and around 100-200GB overnight.

I finally got a response from them by telephone telling me this limit was around 1 terabyte. I asked them to confirm this by email:

From: Safwaan Ismail <Ismail.Safwaan@O2.COM>
Date: 20/02/2010 21:33
This email will give them know what’s happening. It will also explain our how we’re applying our Fair Use policy. There’s still no “cap” on the network – but when we have customers downloading over 1,000Gb we need to take action. This activity really is having a detrimental impact to the majority of our customers

and confirmed this later on that it was indeed 1,000 gigabytes and not 1,000 gigabits:

From: Safwaan Ismail <Ismail.Safwaan@O2.COM>
Date: 20/02/2010 21:20
Just to confirm it’s 1,000 Gigabytes!

(I can provide the full text of the emails if required)

Fine I thought; and signed up on their Pro package on 21/02/2010, and was connected on the 01/03/2010.

On the 14/04/2010; I received the following email:

“We hope that you are enjoying your home broadband experience with us. Unfortunately, it looks like you’ve been using significant amounts of our network capacity and it’s affecting the service that our other customers get.”

I called them and was told I was over my limit for using 108GB! I called to complain and ask for an explaination. I was told (over many hours of calls) that Safwaan had made a mistake, and I shouldn’t have listened to him and instead gone by their Fair Usage Policy.

I have all these calls recorded if they would be any use (despite one of them advising me he doesn’t want the call used, not even in court; that’s a risk I’m possibly willing to take).

I was told they would not be able to provide me broadband. I explained that this was a violation of the agreement on the contract, and they disagreed and could only offer £40 on my mobile phone bill.

To change to another company that provides the bandwidth they promised has cost me £283.50 extra for the year. I’ve asked for this money but they would not accept and refuse to discuss it further.

I’ve recently received a bill from them for £1.75, and they’ve told me that this was an error and would be refunded to my credit card, but can provide no explaination of this charge since they have a 3-month free broadband promotion.

Can’t say I’m very impressed. Have contacted The Register and BBC Watchdog so far.

I use my home connection for my work, and for backing up my home folders. This means I download approximately 150-200GB a month. I can be more specific than this.

I emailed O2 to ask them, didn’t get a reply, so I phoned them up and asked.

A really nice guy, called Matt said:

We can’t forsee a problem with how much you download but can’t guarantee it.

He said to email O2, which I have, four days ago. They say they’ll reply within 24 hours but they don’t seem interested in getting back to me.

Today I sent a message to @o2 on Twitter. They say they can’t help with not receiving an email response.

All they could say was:

“you might be affected by fair use”, and

“if your usage is classed as affecting others then we would contact you”

Being as I can actually give them the last three years of my usage, they can’t even give me a clue whether this would be too much or not.

I could go with O2 and chance that I’ll be ok, but then I might end up with a letter after 3 months telling me I’m downloading too much, meaning that I’m stuck in a contract; and obviously wouldn’t be able to do my job.

At this stage, O2 on Twitter aren’t replying to me anymore and I still haven’t had an email back after 4 days (despite them saying they’ll reply within 24 hours).

I’m writing this blog in the hope that other people will then be aware of this and hopefully be able to advise on what O2 might be able to do, or an alternative ISP to use (though I’d prefer to go with O2, since I have a mobile with them).

Either that, or you never know, O2 might actually read this and realise they’ve got a bit of a problem here. If they could sort this out, I’d be a far happier customer – rather than considering changing my Mobile operator next year because of O2 ignoring me.

I’m trying to transfer Android from an Acer D250 to another Acer D250 without Android. I want Android because it boots quick for web browsing (and I’m not leaving it on standby like some fools on Twitter suggest), Gentoo because it’s great for web development and Windows XP for graphics designy stuff. Because GIMP sucks.

If anyone’s got any questions as to WHY I had to do it this way, please do comment. After a week of having trouble; mostly with Windows XP – I got to to work using a DVD Drive, 3 SD cards, 3 HDDs, two IDE-USB converters, Ghostzilla, BartPE and SysRecCD. I also needed nLite for the original XP installation I’d made.

Before starting, I had a working Android/XP installation, a installation of Gentoo (originally made on another machine) and my installation of Windows XP too.

1. Backup Gentoo to a .tar.gz
2. Backup Windows XP with NTFSClone
3. Use Ghostzilla to duplicate the working Android/XP to Netbook – Android and XP both work fine...
4. Use NTFSClone and restore to a secondary drive
5. Make a BartPE CD with the Intel Storage drivers
6. Boot BartPE and delete everything on the NetBook’s C: drive
7. Copy all the files from the restored NTFSclone image (on a secondary drive) to the C: drive in BartPE
8. Reboot and hope! You should now have Android, and your installation of Windows XP
9. Backup using GhostZilla since it’s now got Android and XP on.
10. Reboot into SysRecCD
11. Use gParted to resize Netbook’s drive to make space for Gentoo and swap partition. You’ll have to move the 4GB FAT32 shared partition of Android/XP. Make the two new partitions (ext3 and swap) for Linux as Logical partitions.
12. Then do mke2fs and mkswapfs on the new partitions.
13. Extract the gentoo.tar.gz to the ext3 partition
14. Don’t install Grub. It’ll probably break everything. Boot back into Windows XP.
15. Download the latest Grub4Dos and copy grldr to the root of C:
    
16. Edit the boot.ini to add in (info here)
    

       C:\grldr="Gentoo Linux"

17. Make a menu.lst file and add in your boot stuff (info here); mine is:

      timeout 0

      title Gentoo Linux

      root (hd0,4)

      kernel /boot/bzImage root=/dev/sda5

Then back it all up!!

WOOOHOOO! I’ve learnt loads after doing this! Huge thanks to @rbsfou and to @kichimi; and especially to @flirtygertie for her Netbook and putting up with me too!

Hope it helps someone! Any questions, please do ask!

Sorry, this is going to look a lot of rubbish to most people, but here’s how I got my RAID to work and the diag output!

I’m pretty sure it’d be useful to someone.

If you don’t find the below interesting, I think you’d like this at least:

# genkernel --no-clean --lvm all
# echo dm-mod >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6
# echo raid5 >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

# blockdev --report /dev/sd*
RO    RA   SSZ   BSZ   StartSec            Size   Device
rw   256   512  4096          0   1000204886016   /dev/sda
rw   256   512  1024         63   1000202241024   /dev/sda1
rw   256   512  4096          0   1000204886016   /dev/sdb
rw   256   512  1024         63   1000202241024   /dev/sdb1
rw   256   512  4096          0   1000204886016   /dev/sdc
rw   256   512  1024         63   1000202241024   /dev/sdc1
rw   256   512  4096          0   1000204886016   /dev/sdd
rw   256   512  1024         63   1000202241024   /dev/sdd1
rw   256   512  4096          0   1000204886016   /dev/sde
rw   256   512  1024         63   1000202241024   /dev/sde1
rw   256   512  4096          0   1000204886016   /dev/sdf
rw   256   512  1024         63   1000202241024   /dev/sdf1

# cfdisk /dev/sda
# cfdisk /dev/sdb
# cfdisk /dev/sdc
# cfdisk /dev/sdd
# cfdisk /dev/sde
# cfdisk /dev/sdf

# cd /dev/
# mkdir /dev/md
# for i in `seq 0 11`; do mknod /dev/md/$i b 9 $i; ln -s md/$i md$i; done
# 

# mdadm --create /dev/md0
        --level=5
        --bitmap=internal
        --raid-devices=6
         /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 /dev/sde1 /dev/sdf1

## This command will show you the health of your entire RAID

# watch cat /proc/mdstat        
Every 2.0s: cat /proc/mdstat

Personalities : [raid6] [raid5] [raid4]
md0 : active raid5 sdf1[6] sde1[4] sdd1[3] sdc1[2] sdb1[1] sda1[0]
      4883799680 blocks level 5, 64k chunk, algorithm 2 [6/5] [UUUUU_]
      [>....................]
      recovery =  0.8% (8015744/976759936) finish=287.3min speed=56179K/sec
      bitmap: 0/233 pages [0KB], 2048KB chunk

unused devices: <none>

## This command will give you detailed info on a specific RAID

# mdadm --detail /dev/md0 
/dev/md0:
        Version : 0.90
  Creation Time : Mon Jul 20 02:09:49 2009
     Raid Level : raid5
     Array Size : 4883799680 (4657.55 GiB 5001.01 GB)
  Used Dev Size : 976759936 (931.51 GiB 1000.20 GB)
   Raid Devices : 6
  Total Devices : 6
Preferred Minor : 0
    Persistence : Superblock is persistent

  Intent Bitmap : Internal

    Update Time : Mon Jul 20 02:11:50 2009
          State : active, degraded, recovering
 Active Devices : 5
Working Devices : 6
 Failed Devices : 0
  Spare Devices : 1

         Layout : left-symmetric
     Chunk Size : 64K

 Rebuild Status : 0% complete

           UUID : 653762f3:3e562b56:1499062a:2e44beb5
         Events : 0.6

    Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
       0       8        1        0      active sync   /dev/sda1
       1       8       17        1      active sync   /dev/sdb1
       2       8       33        2      active sync   /dev/sdc1
       3       8       49        3      active sync   /dev/sdd1
       4       8       65        4      active sync   /dev/sde1
       6       8       81        5      spare rebuilding   /dev/sdf1

# mdadm --detail --scan >> /etc/mdadm.conf

-------- LVM --------

## Scan for existing volume groups (will result in nothing found)

# vgscan

## Activate Volume Groups (VG)

# vgchange -a y
# pvcreate /dev/md0
# vgcreate vg00 /dev/md0

# lvcreate -l 1192333 -n vg vg00
# mke2fs -j /dev/vg00/vg

df -H
Filesystem             Size   Used  Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda1               65G    39G    23G  64% /
udev                    11M   205k    11M   2% /dev
shm                    1.6G      0   1.6G   0% /dev/shm
/dev/mapper/vg00-vg    5.0T   201M   4.7T   1% /raid

## That’s it!

## to add a failed drive back in, use:

# mdadm --manage /dev/md0 -a /dev/sdc1