Install Linux on SATA ide disk

nixon_vb · 06-30-2005, 04:38 AM

I have a PC with one clean SATA Western Digital disk in it.
When I want to install "Red Hat Enterprise Linux" 3 or 4 or Suse Linux 9.0 on it, then it responds that it has no medium to install Linux on.

How can I see the SATA disk for installing any Linux (preferable RHEL3)
Do I need to load/include extra drivers ?

cuiq · 06-30-2005, 02:21 PM

Please don't think I'm insulting your intelligence but have you tried the expert install?
During the expert install you'll have the ability to choose the hard drive and a standard partition setup or creating your own.

Just a thought.

maxgsp · 06-30-2005, 07:45 PM

I had the same issue. SuSE 9.0 doesn't recognize SATA drives. In your BIOS you may be able to degrade the drive to PATA. You'll take a hit on performance, but depending on how you use the system you may never see an issue. SuSE 9.1 and above will recognize the SATA drive. I don't have any experience with RedHat.

nixon_vb · 07-01-2005, 01:55 AM

Yes I checked yesterday in the BIOS the SATA settings. I found something like:
Automatic RAID detection or ATA

This works fine for Redhat 4.0, but not for 3.0.
I discovered that Redhat 4.0 contains several different SATA drivers. I could select them when the installation doesn't find any installation medium, however without success. 3.0 doesn't have these drivers.

Now I have systems with SATA and Redhat 3.0 preinstalled by DELL working fine. Maybe it is worth to contact DELL about this ...