hi! i'm just new to linux. i hard a new/second raw hard drive which inserted and i want to make partitions on it. how can i set cylinders on it? i've tried fdisk /dev/hdg then it gives me this message "You must set cylinders" my hard drive is sata 160 GB and i want to create 3 new partitions.. anybody can help.. thank you!

New one on me....

Is that the only thing that fdisk tells you?

Here is what I would consider a "normal" output from fdisk:

<<<
root@Ath:/home/mherring# fdisk /dev/hdh

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 4866.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
>>>

What happens if you type "fdisk -l"? (That's an "ell", not a one)

i can only see the first drive which is /dev/hde... but when i type dmesg /dev/hdg is present. when i issued the fdisk /dev/hde normal output of fdisk is seen

You mean fdisk -l does not show /dev/hdg at all?

can you read from it using dd?

try: "dd if=/dev/hdg bs=512 count=3 | hexdump -C > testfile

then "cat testfile"

here is the output...what dose this means?
00000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
000001b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 |................|
000001c0 01 00 83 fe 3f 00 3f 00 00 00 82 3e 00 00 00 00 |....?.?....>....|
000001d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
000001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00000200 50 4b 03 04 14 00 00 00 00 00 e2 51 39 34 e1 a5 |PK.........Q94..|
00000210 31 39 1e 00 00 00 1e 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 6d 69 |19............mi|
00000220 6d 65 74 79 70 65 61 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 69 6f |metypeapplicatio|
00000230 6e 2f 76 6e 64 2e 73 75 6e 2e 78 6d 6c 2e 77 72 |n/vnd.sun.xml.wr|
00000240 69 74 65 72 50 4b 03 04 14 00 08 00 08 00 e2 51 |iterPK.........Q|
00000250 39 34 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0b 00 |94..............|
00000260 00 00 63 6f 6e 74 65 6e 74 2e 78 6d 6c b5 55 4d |..content.xml.UM|
00000270 6f 1a 31 10 bd f7 57 b8 3e f4 94 c5 50 2e 81 b2 |o.1...W.>...P...|
00000280 44 6d 48 a4 48 10 a2 02 52 7b 34 b6 17 ac 7a ed |DmH.H...R{4...z.|
00000290 ad ed e5 e3 df d7 6b ef 47 50 60 39 a0 5e 40 1e |......k.GP`9.^@.|
000002a0 bf 79 f3 e6 ed d8 1e 3d 1c 52 01 76 4c 1b ae 64 |.y.....=.R.vL..d|
000002b0 0c 7b 9d 2e 04 4c 12 45 b9 dc c4 70 b5 7c 8e ee |.{...L.E...p.|..|
000002c0 e1 c3 f8 d3 e8 f3 64 fe b8 fc fd f6 04 54 92 70 |......d......T.p|
000002d0 c2 86 54 91 3c 65 d2 46 44 49 eb fe c1 db ea c7 |..T.<e.FDI......|
000002e0 f4 e5 11 c0 08 a1 79 c6 e4 dc c3 3a 4a 6f 10 9a |......y....:Jo..|
000002f0 2c 27 20 ac 27 65 16 70 75 10 7a 7a 85 00 06 be |,' .'e.pu.zz....|
00000300 0e b5 14 8e 47 97 c8 9d 46 69 86 61 37 86 5b 6b |....G...Fi.a7.[k|
00000310 b3 21 42 ca 95 51 4d 99 af dd 6e 17 85 35 2c 13 |.!B..QM...n..5,.|
00000320 8c 3d 8a 76 bc 47 54 70 cb 0e b6 15 5d 00 6a 30 |.=.v.GTp....].j0|
00000330 5e 5f e1 f6 88 0a 4e 35 de b7 a2 0b 80 f3 bc c2 |^_....N5........|
00000340 27 aa 46 ef f7 fb ce be ef 91 bd c1 60 80 7e 2d |'.F.........`.~-|
00000350 a6 e8 59 e9 14 d7 5a 0e 82 cb 3f 17 f1 7e b7 82 |..Y...Z...?..~..|
00000360 ca 3c 5d 33 dd ae 04 5b 7c e2 8b d9 6d ce 91 07 |.<]3...[|...m...|
00000370 03 77 b5 64 b2 c5 ba dd 3f 8f 68 1c e9 d3 2b 8e |.w.d....?.h...+.|
00000380 f4 69 05 76 cd 6e 2f 34 78 8f 66 6e d3 ff cc a6 |.i.v.n/4x.fn....|
00000390 8d 7d 3a 6d 25 2f 00 75 7f 44 f3 ac 5d 79 80 c0 |.}:m%/.u.D..]y..|
000003a0 6a fa 89 c0 c6 c4 30 cc 43 19 3b 39 43 f5 28 87 |j.....0.C.;9C.(.|
000003b0 44 54 af 13 37 d1 11 65 44 98 f1 c8 9b dc 44 40 |DT..7..eD.....D@|
000003c0 58 4b 9c ba b9 5a e2 ad 4a 71 0f 82 44 05 44 82 |XK...Z..Jq..D.D.|
000003d0 53 2e 8e d5 c6 1d 98 e6 84 53 6c b0 34 77 e0 0b |S........Sl.4w..|
000003e0 ce 94 f9 16 22 60 e1 42 21 50 6d 7c d7 1c 0b b0 |...."`.B!Pm|....|
000003f0 92 dc 1d 6b 06 66 8b 10 85 a8 5d c1 2b 4f d7 b9 |...k.f....].+O..|
00000400 f1 74 60 fa 51 47 20 39 01 95 bc e0 1d 6b c6 2d |.t`.QG 9.....k.-|
00000410 71 1f 6e 87 9d 84 e2 34 5c a9 19 9a fb 9f 4d df |q.n....4\.....M.|
00000420 20 ae ec f5 a7 53 22 c1 ab 1a 5c 75 e5 1d f2 4c | ....S"...\u...L|
00000430 f5 90 12 6d 98 64 9a 93 18 ea 02 7d 4d 1f 3a 33 |...m.d.....}M.:3|
00000440 46 65 08 e7 d6 31 58 4e 22 4f 61 9a 99 5b 2b 7a |Fe...1XN"Oa..[+z|
00000450 1c 8f 8a 61 1d 1a f6 37 77 d7 3b ab 72 3f 06 81 |...a...7w.;.r?..|
00000460 0f 51 6e 32 81 8f 91 ca ad bb 3d 58 24 d8 8e 89 |.Qn2......=X$...|
00000470 18 ba c7 c1 6f 07 43 5e 84 c8 8d d5 ae a6 92 85 |....o.C^........|
00000480 b8 9b c8 96 55 8b b7 b1 14 27 f2 56 92 49 79 15 |....U....'.V.Iy.|
00000490 17 7e 5f 76 2d 0b 29 de ec 28 24 2e 2c 96 14 6b |.~_v-.)..($.,..k|
000004a0 f7 92 19 63 ca dc ac f9 68 e1 3b a0 0b 8f dc f8 |...c....h.;.....|
000004b0 1f 50 4b 07 08 4a 8a d2 a6 44 02 00 00 8b 07 00 |.PK..J...D......|
000004c0 00 50 4b 03 04 14 00 08 00 08 00 e2 51 39 34 00 |.PK.........Q94.|
000004d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 73 |...............s|
000004e0 74 79 6c 65 73 2e 78 6d 6c ed 58 5d 6f db 36 14 |tyles.xml.X]o.6.|
000004f0 7d df af d0 34 6c 4f 95 25 d9 49 6b 67 71 8a ad |}...4lO.%.Ikgq..|
00000500 69 81 02 4e 52 2c 09 b0 3d d2 12 65 71 93 48 81 |i..NR,..=..eq.H.|
00000510 a4 6c a7 bf be 97 a4 28 c9 b6 24 bb 75 b7 a7 e5 |.l.....(..$.u...|
00000520 21 80 ef 3d f7 93 87 97 a4 ae df 6e f3 cc 59 63 |!..=.......n..Yc|
00000530 2e 08 a3 73 37 1c 05 ae 83 69 c4 62 42 57 73 f7 |...s7....i.bBWs.|
00000540 f9 e9 83 37 75 df de fc 70 fd e3 ed c3 bb a7 bf |...7u...p.......|
00000550 3e bd 77 58 92 90 08 5f c5 2c 2a 73 4c a5 27 e4 |>.wX..._.,*sL.'.|
00000560 4b 86 85 f3 e9 f9 f7 c5 c7 77 8e eb f9 fe 43 81 |K........w....C.|
00000570 e9 83 46 8d 18 5f f9 fe ed d3 ad 63 7e df 56 46 |..F.._.....c~.VF|
00000580 0e 84 f1 fd f7 f7 ae e3 1a 77 a3 58 c6 ee cd 75 |.........w.X...u|
00000590 8f 6f c8 90 8a 2b a3 9c bb a9 94 c5 95 ef 33 88 |.o...+........3.|
000005a0 c2 9a 28 e3 20 08 7c f3 db ad 0c b4 f5 20 5e 23 |..(. .|...... ^#|
000005b0 2c 5c e2 ad 1c 44 2b 40 0d 46 cb 23 be 35 c2 c2 |,\...D+@.F.#.5..|
000005c0 63 8e 36 83 68 05 80 8e 5b 7c c2 6a f4 66 b3 19 |c.6.h...[|.j.f..|
000005d0 6d 26 1a 19 ce 66 33 ff cf c7 85 ff 81 f1 1c d5 |m&...f3.........|
000005e0 b9 6c 33 42 ff e9 c5 6b ad 85 d2 32 5f 62 3e 9c |.l3B...k...2_b>.|
000005f0 09 92 68 a7 2f 62 bd ea 72 6e 1a b8 ae 53 8e 52 |..h./b..rn...S.R|
00000600