I'm trying to install Ubuntu on a friend's computer. He just bought a SATA 150 PCI controller from SIIG. The card has its own BIOS which runs at POST, and Ubuntu detects the drive just fine. However, gParted froze up while trying to make an ext3 partition on the drive. I ran mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdc and the process stopped while writing the inodes table -- it just can't format this drive.

Is anyone aware of any problems with this controller? I've already checked the hard drive in another box; it formats fine there. What do you suggest?

Are your sure it's not simply a typo? The proper command is :mkfs.ext3 (or mkfs.ext2 -j).

Sorry, I mistyped that. Yes, I definitely used the correct command. I also tried to format it another way. The problem is an apparent incompatibility in the controller.