Install won't find hard drives

[craesz]

Finally checked the workaround for truecrypt for my work machine. Went through backups today of all my data so I can reformat all my hard drives. This morning when I tried to download the latest ISO, I got an error message about not having permission with ibiblio.org.... I went to my repository instead (one of the indiana.edu ones... I'm home in the middle of trying to get to a graduation ceremony....) and downloaded 2010.1 ISO. Burned it using K3B and MD5 seemed fine.

The first time I went to install the live install went to my USB drives. I restarted the box after unplugging them (one had my backup files on it and I didn't want anything to happen to it). When I started the install, I chose Next and then an error panel came up saying I didn't have any drives available to install PCLinuxOS.

Live CD using Konqueror sysinfo says it was using 2.6.32.12-pclos1.bfs with KDE 4.4.3. It finds my processor and RAM but the Disk Information section has no drives listed.

My KDE 3.5 system works fine.

I am using a XFX MCP72P mobo.

I went to my BIOS to see if there might be an issue there. I have gone back and forth setting my SATA controller to SATA mode and AHCI mode. Neither mode works. My only other option is RAID. I saw something earlier about RAID not functioning properly so I doubt that will work or is the issue.

PCC shows my SATA controller as MCP785 [GEForce 8200] SATA controller (non-AHCI mode) [obviously had BIOS set this way], IDE controller as MCP78S [GeForce 8200] IDE, my hard disk sda as WDC WD1001FALS-0 [with appropriate partitions], my other hard disk as ST31500341AS. I've got the rest of the hardware listing but I don't think it is relevant.

No matter what I did, the live cd never found my drives so I went back to download again. This time the ibiblio download worked. Unfortunately, no luck. Still won't find my hard drives even though the prior kernel had no issues.

Would appreciate any help the gurus here can give. Thanks.

[djohnston]

Boot from a liveCD with no USB devices attached. In a terminal, as user root, type:

Code:

fdisk -l

Post results.

[craesz]

I'll do that but when you say no devices attached are you referring to everything? Printers? Hubs?

[djohnston]

I'll do that but when you say no devices attached are you referring to everything? Printers? Hubs?

No, just storage devices, such as hard drives, thumb drives, etc, need to be disconnected. So there is no confusion. Just trying to isolate which devices are the hard drives you want to work with. The command "fdisk -l" will just list your current disk partitions.

[Never_More]

When you burn the live cd did you burn it DAO and the slowest speed possible on your burner? If you didn't do this that could be the problem with your burnt live cd. DAO is recommended when you burn a Linux live cd. Also the the slowest possible speed for your burner is recommended as well.

[craesz]

I doubt that the burning could be an issue as it happened twice, but I just downloaded and burned the 2010.1 disk here at the house using the slowest DAO burn I could. I will be leaving shortly for work and will use it to obtain the fdisk -l results. I will post them as soon as I can.

[craesz]

Just got back to the house.... Tried the install with the DAO slow burn live cd and got the same result. Went to a shell and typed "fdisk -l". Nothing happened. Just went back to the prompt.

Would really like to install 2010.... any help would be really appreciated. Thanks.

[Was_Just19]

Just got back to the house.... Tried the install with the DAO slow burn live cd and got the same result. Went to a shell and typed "fdisk -l". Nothing happened. Just went back to the prompt.

Would really like to install 2010.... any help would be really appreciated. Thanks.

su to root to use fdisk   

[craesz]

su to root (on both SATA and AHCI) sends me back to the prompt. Nothing is listed.

[Was_Just19]

su to root (on both SATA and AHCI) sends me back to the prompt. Nothing is listed.

open a terminal

type in

su  <enter>

when prompted type in the root password followed by pressing Enter

Then type in

fdisk -l


Copy and paste the command and the output into your next post.

regards.

[craesz]

Sorry JohnBoy.... messed up my last post.... I did that already. There is no output when I execute fdisk -l. It just sends me back to the command prompt.

[craesz]

This is with BIOS set for SATA

[craesz]

This is with BIOS set for AHCI [option 'Change the AHCI DID for Linux' = Disabled]

[craesz]

This is with BIOS set for AHCI [option 'Change the AHCI DID for Linux' = Enabled]

[craesz]

In addition to the above, on each boot on each setting I receive

Code:

BIOS EDD facility v.0.16 2004-Jun-25, 2 devices found

I presume this is saying that it actually finds the hard drives, maybe?

Also, each time I receive a message regarding the controller

SATA

Code:

nVidia Corporation|MCP78S (GeForce 8200) (non-AHCI controller)

AHCI (linux DID disabled)

Code:

nVidia Corporation|MCP78S (GeForce 8200) (AHCI controller)

AHCI (linux DID enabled)

Code:

nVidia Corporation|Device 0584

Thanks for helping.

EDIT: Looks like I'm not the only one with nVidia SATA issues [http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?topic=73541.0]