Noob question about install? not finding HD
 

I've got a copy of both Fedora Core 3 and PlayLinEx trying to install one or the other on my Dell Pentium 4 3.40 Ghz. I am trying to make a dual boot machine i already have Win XP installed, i left a part(20GB) of my HD empty to install linux. My HD is a Maxtor 6L160MO. As far as the install go, both Fedora and PlayLinEx tells me it can't find my hd, then gives me the option to add a device. But the list it brings up looks like eithernet cards, and i don't have a driver disk for it. I've tried several different distros of linux but i haven't gotten any of them sucessful installed. Are they haveing trouble because it's a combo DVD/CDR-W? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

This message is somewhat unclear.

If the "HD" is not found, as in the whole harddrive, then there is a serious problem. Check the BIOS, make sure that BIOS "virus detection" is disabled...
If the "HD" is not found as in "can't find a partition to use", make sure that you didn't block linux from seing the drive in Partition magic (or whatever you used), and that you didn't activate any of those things.

It doesn't make sense that Fedora would show you a list of ethernet cards when it says that the harddrive is not found.

The DVD/CDR-W, I would see how this would create a problem with the harddrive. I have a multi combo CD/R/W DVD-/+/R/W/ROM and that never stopped me ;)

Have you tried a Live CD such as Knoppix?

If the machine has a very recent SATA chipset the versions you're
trying to install may well not be installable (too old), too.

What are the technical specs on the box?


Cheers,
Tink

Your drive is a SATA, right? An old distro like Fedora 3 may well not support SATA--not sure about the other one.
The kind of DVD or CD drive you have is irrelevant.

Can you try something current like Ubuntu 6.06 or Fedora 5? (Both free)

Thanks for the advice, I have tried Knoppix, used it alittle bit. But i want something that's permently on my computer. I'll download Fedora 5 and see if that helps, and i'll go back and write down the exact error msg

ANd Knoppix has a hard-disk-installer ;} ... no need to give up on
it if you have familiarised yourself with it already.


Cheers,
Tink

the exact error msg goes something like this
click the yes
then the next error msg
click add device
brings up a list of what looks like eithernet cards, from 3com, compaq and so on.Gives me the option of hitting F12 if have a disk, but of course i don't.

as far as my system heres a breif run down
Pentium 4 CPU 3.40Ghz
Hard drive: Maxtor 6L160MO (120GB I believe)
Video Card: Radeon x600
DVD TSST corp/CDRW/DVD TSH 492B
1GB RAM

right out of windows system info. if i missed something that would help please lemme know and i'll look it up.

and i used the window partioning utility to partion the drive when i was installing windows.

Can you boot into Knoppix and post the output of lspci?


Cheers,
Tink