[SOLVED] Installer can't see my sata hdd

poisonborz · 12-10-2009, 09:56 AM

Hola,

I'm trying to install Kubuntu 9.10 from a pendrive to a 200GB hdd on a A7N8X-E motherboard. The bios sees the drive, as does the Live OS, but when I try to install, nothing is shown on the Drives panel (only a cropped yellow alert sign and no text). I've tried a low-level format, and converting the partition to ext4 with gparted, flagged as boot, everything seems to be fine, but the installer just doesn't see it. What could be the problem?

raju.mopidevi · 12-11-2009, 11:38 AM

what error you got ?? post your error message..

If your system is previously installed with VISTA, then it disables installation of linux. Then you have to change the BIOS settings

H_TeXMeX_H · 12-11-2009, 01:25 PM

Go into the BIOS options and check the SATA controller settings, something like: AHCI/SATA/PATA. Change the setting to something else, I usually use AHCI, but if it's already on that change it to something else.

It's usually that the kernel the installer is using does not have a module that recognizes the SATA controller, if you change the BIOS settings on the controller a kernel module may then be able to find it.

poisonborz · 12-11-2009, 06:12 PM

Now I've tried Ubuntu 9.10, and the livecd os greeted me with a warning that the drive has a huge number of bad sectors (1244)... I would only use the fraction of the disk space for unimportant data...

I wonder if something can be done. Altough Windows 7 (or its installer) does not recognize any partitions, Ubuntu does, and can format/copy, anything. The only problem is the installer... Is there any way I could revive it?

H_TeXMeX_H · 12-12-2009, 05:31 AM

Hmm, I would use something like:
http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/

to check the drive for errors, if it has errors just toss it.

poisonborz · 12-17-2009, 08:57 PM

I finally found a solution. Anyone who uses an older mobo that has a separate raid controller for sata (~fakeraid) and has problems with Ubuntu recognizig a hdd, should try these easy steps:

# Boot Ubuntu Karmic LiveCD as usual
# Once booted, open a terminal and type:
sudo apt-get remove dmraid
# check everything went fine with the following command, value must be zero 0
echo $?
# Double click on Install Ubuntu 9.10
# Proceed as usual Forward-> Forward->
# Hopefully your disk must be recognized now.