It's an alienware notebook. We tried installing slackware 10.1 and it doesnt recognize the hard drive. The RAID controller is by Promise.

Any help would be GREATLY applreciated!!!

From what I know about Slackware, it doesn't "recognize" anything--you have to build it all up manually. Have you thought about using a more "automatic" distribution, like Mepis, Ubuntu, or Xandros?

SuSE, Fedora Core, and Madrake do not work either.

Slackware recognizes a ton of stuff. You only have to build something if support isn't in one of the kernels included on the install CDs. I personally have Slackware running on 5 boxen, and the only piece of hardware it doesn't detect and support is a Toshiba software modem and a Microtek ScanMaker 4850. No other Linux distribution is going to recognize them, either, because they aren't supported in a Linux kernel yet.

Which Promise RAID controller do you have, which hard drive, and which kernel are you choosing? It will have to have support for that controller in order to "see" your drive(s).

Check Linux on Laptops and TuxMobil to see if someone posted any information about your particular laptop.

Also check the Linux Hardware Compatability List here at LQ.

When booting from the Slackware CD1, you can hit F2 and then F3 to read the choices of kernels to install. You might need to use ataraid.i or raid.i