Hello
I had a problem saying "Kernel panic..." with my Linux machine, and I could not do anything except making a low level format.

Now I'm trying to install RedHat 8.0 to this machine with Adaptec SCSI Card 39160.

However, when it comes to partitioning I get the "The partition table on sda was unreadable. To create new partitions it must be initialized, causing the loss of all data on this drive. Would you like to initialize this drive?" message

If I click yes it I get a new massage:
"input/output error during read on /dev/sda"

If I click Retry I continue getting the same massage. Ignoring, again, does not help. If I click Cancel, a new message appears:

An error has occured- no valid devices were found on which to create new file systems. And machine reboots.

Can anyone help me with this problem?
Thanks.

Note: It works well with DOS and was working well with Redhat 8.0.

Note 2: Within the messages at the beginning, I can see only hdc and hdd. (They are CDROM and CD/RW)

Maybe a cable got loose?

Umm.. Kurt, he said it worked fine with DOS and Redhat 8.0.

Perhaps you need drivers for this adapter, found this page in a search that might help. http://people.freebsd.org/~gibbs/linux/

Yes, but if the cable was in fact loose there had to be a point at which it came loose.

His error basically states though that it can't read the partition on /dev/sda and needs to recreate them.. clearly stating that the drive to me is recognized, thus not being a loose cable. A loose cable would give a different error or the such...

Regards.

And when it tries to recreate them, it can't. Both are problems consistent with a loose cable.

I doubt it but ok.. Your always right aren't you.. ?? You don't have to answer that, lets carry on with the topic.

I may not be right--I'm not his computer, I don't know--but the problems he described are consistent with the solution I offered.