HDD not recognised (trying to partition)
Forum: HD Install
Topic: HDD not recognised (trying to partition)
started by: 4ebees
Posted by 4ebees on May 24 2005,15:54
Hi all,V. new to DSL (have just downloaded ISO). I'm trying to install DSL to an old Compaq Deskpro 166MMX (142MB RAM, 2G HDD).
I'm trying to install on a HDD that had Smoothwall installed - have just reinstalled on another pc). I've tried cfdisk, but the HDD is not recognised/located.
I've tried using a Winders98 boot disk, but get the same problem, I've also tried to use the Emergency Boot Rescue Disk CD I have (not failed before) and again, it says it can't find C: (or D: or X: for that matter)
If I just boot up the pc, Smoothwall starts - so the HDD is there and can be seen in the BIOS.
I'm a bit stumped by this - I've not experienced this before. Has anyone any suggestions as to where to start?
Any suggestions, recommendations, or referrals to other sites for assistance, would be most appreciated.
Posted by cbagger01 on May 24 2005,16:37
Are you looking at the correct hard drive address?For IDE drives, the syntax is:
/dev/hda
/dev/hdb
/dev/hdc
/dev/hdd
For SCSI drives, the syntax is:
/dev/sda
/dev/sdb
/dev/sdc
/dev/sdd
Try typing "mount" and press ENTER key from a smoothwall terminal.
Maybe you can figure out the location of the hard drive from the list of mounts.
I dunno. I have never used smoothwall.
Posted by clivesay on May 24 2005,16:51
Are you running cfdisk from root? Also, you may want to check in /mnt to see how your HD is recognized (hda hdb hdc).Then you can just:
cfdisk /dev/hda
Or whatever your drive ID is.
Good luck
Chris
Posted by Guest on May 24 2005,16:56
You are trying to install DSL on top of Smoothwall, right? And you want to remove Smoothwall, right?If so, then I wonder why that Windows Emergency Disk did not work. Normally you should be able to boot with it, then use fdisk. Initially it will tell you that it did not locate a drive because the drive is formatted as ext2, which Windows cannot recognize. But this shouldn't matter because you should still be able to do low-level format on that disk with fdisk. Do not "cd" to the hard disk; run fdisk from the floppy.
Also, did you try booting off the DSL LiveCD? Once booting is finished, open an XTerminal and type "sudo su". Then type "cat /etc/fstab | less", and you should see a listing of mountable devices that was detected on your computer. One of them should look like "/dev/hda#" and have the item "ext2" after it. If you see this, your hard disk was recognized by DSL. Press "q" to quit the program "less", then type "mount /dev/hda#" (use the appropriate number for #). Then type "cd /mnt/hda#" and "ls -al" and you should see the contents of that drive.
Try booting off the LiveCD first and tell us what you saw.
Posted by 4ebees on May 25 2005,00:19
Hi all,Thanks for the info. I was able to make huge progress as a result (though with one SMALL problem
)I realised that it was hdc (1-4). So, using the live disk, I cfdisk'd hdc to make one large partition, then made two partitions (one of 500MB and the other of the remaining). I then used the GUI install option. All seemed to go well, until installing the boot loader. It 'seemed' okay, but then stalled at re-boot (as requested) and now I get the dreaded "L1 01 01" litany.
I'm not familiar with hacking around boot loaders, so again any assistance would be most appreciated.
(Just so people know, the idea at this stage is that I've proposed an install at a community centre in a socio-economically deprived area. I want to get the hang of a Linux distro that will suit older pcs, so we can use it as an option for those persons who think their machine has come to the end of it's useful life - which is why I'm trying out DSL!)
Posted by green on May 25 2005,01:46
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/talk/node/135
Posted by 4ebees on May 25 2005,04:17
Hi, thanks for the reply, but I'm afraid that I was lost at:"Thankfully, GRUB is very simple to do this with. for example, if your DSL hd-install is on hda1, here is what you need to enter.
title DSL
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda1
makeactive
boot"
I enter this... where?
Do I boot from the disk - which I did - and then...?
I'm afraid I couldn't quite work out what the correct command was, or where to enter it, as none appeared to satisfy Grub - it merely informed me that it didn't understand that the commands (in the order they appear in the instructions).
Thanks for your follow-up.
Posted by skaos on May 25 2005,10:28
You have only one hard disk in the box? If so, it is connected as master on the secondary ide channel. Usually the first HD is connected as primary master and this may confuse lilo (I'm no expert though). Is it possible to connect it as primary master and try from the beginning again?
Posted by 4ebees on May 25 2005,13:09
I've taken the HDD and CD-ROM out and changed the jumper settings. In my excitement (?) I accidentally deleted the damn BIOS from the HDD (I haven't played with this Compaq box for a while and forgot they have the BIOS on the HDD). So now I have to remember who to reinstall the damn thing again - so I can choose boot settings etc - can't believe I did it. It's been so long since I had to install the bugger, I've forgotten what I need and how to, so I'm going to have to start again. Serves me right for not paying close enough attention (I have to at least feed the children now and again )I'll get back when I've the time to sort this out
Posted by skaos on May 25 2005,14:06
You can probably find a diskette package on compaq's home page that can be used to (re)create the bios partition.
Posted by 4ebees on May 31 2005,03:56
Well, I started to remember the problems I'd had before and what I'd done to overcome the problems. Because the box was a 'thin client' the BIOS wouldn't allow you to do more than change the boot settings from floppy to HDD - you couldn't tell it to boot from CD-ROM. So, I changed the IDE ribbons cables so that the CD-ROM became Primary, HDD secondary. This causes the machine boot from CD-ROM.Okay "I'm on my way from misery to happiness today. Huhu,huhu" (sung with a Scottish accent).