I am building a new Ubuntu PC and have put in one of these drives, but when the machine starts up, the drive goes into a loop of whirring noises like it is trying to eject or read a disk. There is no disk in the drive.

It also will not accept a disk if I try and insert one.

Where, in the log files, should I start looking for evidence of what the problem could be?

You can look at the output of the dmesg command however I suspect a hardware problem. Is this a new drive?

It is a new drive.

I have looked in the dmesg file - first on the Ubuntu 13.10 that I have set up on the machine:

[ 0.000000] Linux version 3.11.0-24-generic (buildd@toyol) (gcc version 4.8.1 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.8.1-10ubuntu8) ) #41-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jun 9 20:36:00 UTC 2014 (Ubuntu 3.11.0-24.41-generic 3.11.10.11)
[ 0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.11.0-24-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=b1937763-cfbd-443d-9365-5756d937d501 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7

further down:

[ 1.083313] ata6.00: ACPI cmd ef/10:06:00:00:00:00 (SET FEATURES) succeeded
[ 1.083316] ata6.00: ACPI cmd f5/00:00:00:00:00:00 (SECURITY FREEZE LOCK) filtered out
[ 1.083317] ata6.00: ACPI cmd b1/c1:00:00:00:00:00 (DEVICE CONFIGURATION OVERLAY) filtered out
[ 1.099336] ata6.00: ATAPI: hp CDDVDW TS-T633PN, H1BA, max UDMA/100
[ 1.109087] sdb: sdb1
[ 1.109195] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
[ 1.117592] ata6.00: ACPI cmd ef/10:06:00:00:00:00 (SET FEATURES) succeeded
[ 1.117594] ata6.00: ACPI cmd f5/00:00:00:00:00:00 (SECURITY FREEZE LOCK) filtered out
[ 1.117596] ata6.00: ACPI cmd b1/c1:00:00:00:00:00 (DEVICE CONFIGURATION OVERLAY) filtered out
[ 1.133231] ata6.00: configured for UDMA/100
[ 1.134741] scsi 5:0:0:0: CD-ROM hp CDDVDW TS-T633PN H1BA PQ: 0 ANSI: 5



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Then I tried a live CD version (booted from USB) of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, thinking it might be a kernel issue:

[ 0.000000] Linux version 3.11.0-15-generic (buildd@allspice) (gcc version 4.6.3 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5) ) #25~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jan 30 17:39:31 UTC 2014 (Ubuntu 3.11.0-15.25~precise1-generic 3.11.10)
[ 0.000000] Command line: initrd=/casper/initrd.lz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash -- BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz.efi

Further down:

[ 3.541974] ata6.00: ACPI cmd ef/10:06:00:00:00:00 (SET FEATURES) succeeded
[ 3.541976] ata6.00: ACPI cmd f5/00:00:00:00:00:00 (SECURITY FREEZE LOCK) filtered out
[ 3.541977] ata6.00: ACPI cmd b1/c1:00:00:00:00:00 (DEVICE CONFIGURATION OVERLAY) filtered out
[ 3.543021] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=8087, idProduct=8008
[ 3.543022] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[ 3.543272] hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found
[ 3.543373] hub 1-1:1.0: 6 ports detected
[ 3.557601] ata6.00: ATAPI: hp CDDVDW TS-T633PN, H1BA, max UDMA/100
[ 3.575866] ata6.00: ACPI cmd ef/10:06:00:00:00:00 (SET FEATURES) succeeded
[ 3.575867] ata6.00: ACPI cmd f5/00:00:00:00:00:00 (SECURITY FREEZE LOCK) filtered out
[ 3.575868] ata6.00: ACPI cmd b1/c1:00:00:00:00:00 (DEVICE CONFIGURATION OVERLAY) filtered out
[ 3.591895] ata6.00: configured for UDMA/100
[ 3.594534] scsi 5:0:0:0: CD-ROM hp CDDVDW TS-T633PN H1BA PQ: 0 ANSI: 5

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So it looks like Linux can get some information from the drive.

I will try some more versions and see if I get different results.

If you have any insight into the ACPI messages, that would help.