Can someone help a Linux newbie like me? I am trying to install RedHat Linux AS3 version 4 on a new HP box. However, this box uses only SATA interfaces for it’s HDDs and DVD- CDROM. There are 4 SATA slots on the motherboard. I’ve got two 80Gb SATA Hdds that I want to mirror or put RAID1 into it. After plugging the HDDs and rebooting, the 2 HDDs and the DVD/CD drive were recognized by the BIOS but when I’m into the point of Partitioning th HDD via DRUID, only the 1st 80Gb HDD was recognized by Linux install and the other one is not.

Below are scenarios I tried fixing the issue.
Hardware: HP Compaq dc7800p, 1 Gb RAM, Intel Core 2 Duo E6550

SATA connections on the Motherboard (as seen on the BIOS)
On Linux setup (DRUID)

Scenario 2:
SATA 0 – 1st HDD 80Gb
SATA 1 – DVD Drive
SATA 4 – 2nd HDD 80Gb
Comment: 1st HDD and DVD drive were recognized as /dev/hda but no /dev/hdc (2nd HDD)

Scenario 2:
SATA 0 – 1st HDD 80Gb
SATA 1 – 2nd HDD 80Gb
SATA 4 – DVD Drive
Comment: After swapping the SATA port connections, I was able to boot to the CD but when it goes to the actual setup, the CDROM drive was not seen by Linux and it’s asking me to install some drivers (for SATA controller).It seems that if I swap the SATA connections, CDROM is not recognized. 2nd HDD is saying it’s not a valid partition. Any Ideas guys?

Scenario 3:
SATA 0 – 1st HDD 80Gb
SATA 1 – 2nd HDD 80Gb
SATA 4 – DVD Drive removed
Comment: /dev/hda is seen;/dev/hdc couldn’t be seen in the Hardware Browser.

I’ve checked the BIOS settings and didn’t find anything there to actually make this thing work. In the first place, both HDD s and DVDROM drives were recognized in the BIOS. These SATA hdds were not being recognized like SCSI devices.

Many thanks

RedHat [Enterprise] Linux AS3 version 4 is well out of date and cannot be expected to support the newer sata controllers. You can try setting legacy mode in bios and at the boot: prompt (RHEL install) enter: "all-generic-ide pci=nommconf". Make sure you are not using a dedicated sata raid card. Best practise is to use your update option you paid for with RHEL and get the latest version.

The hardware browser is seldom much use on forums like this. Detecd drives with the commandline. Enter:

fdisk -l

Note: RHEL is a commercial distribution with paid support. If you want unpaid support, you should be using a free distribution. The free distribution closest to RHEL in called CentOS.

Thanks Simon for the quick reply. I've tried it but didn't work. I guess I have to purchase the new version then try it again.

You "purchased" RHEL3? Not from Redhat... at least, not recently.