My new Hard Drive not recognised from livecd

spudtheimpaler · 05-14-2007, 02:04 PM

Hi everyone...

I just bought a Western Digital, 120GB Scorpio HDD for my laptop, part number WD1200UE (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=165 or http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/108820)

Yay for me. I have an ubuntu livecd (which i'm writing from) and I'm trying to install to the hard drive, however the partition manager (both in the install process, and gparted seperately) dont detect the drive.

So, I don't even know if the drive is dead, if it's just linux not finding it...

As far as I know, lspci might be useful to you, so I put the output to that at the bottom. I'm not a complete novice, but please treat me as such as I'm still pretty fresh.

Any ideas? How to detect whether it is there or not?

I'd appreciate any help!

Thanks,

Mitch.

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
02:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80)
02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
02:04.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB1410 Cardbus Controller (rev 01)

okmyx · 05-14-2007, 02:57 PM

Any BIOS updates for large capacity drives?
Does the old original HD still work(eliminate laptop hardware fault)?
Anything in the BIOS to indicate drive detection?
Do the HD lights actually flicker?
Can you actullay hear the drive spinning?

michaelk · 05-14-2007, 03:04 PM

It would also be nice to know the make / model number of the laptop.

Matir · 05-14-2007, 03:15 PM

Does the BIOS see the drive?

What does 'dmesg | grep hd' or 'dmesg | grep sd' show? This will show if the kernel detected it at all. Have you run Linux on this computer before? It could be a chipset issue if not.

spudtheimpaler · 05-14-2007, 03:42 PM

Thanks for the quick replies!

There is nothing in the bios output to indicate hard drive being found, though I don't remember any in the first place. I will try the old HDD now to check (I haven't yet, can't think why not really).

dmesg came up with nothing, grepped hd and sd.

M laptop, like okmyx, is a Toshiba Satellite A30. I'm running the ubuntu live cd and the hdd light is always on, though i think in this case it is referring to the ramdisk.

I have run linux (semi) happily before on this machine, am quite confident it is a hdd issue.

Will post this now and come straight back with bios details

Thanks...

Matir · 05-14-2007, 03:44 PM

Try going into the bios and trying to redetect the hard drive. If the BIOS doesn't see it, there's little chance Linux will.

spudtheimpaler · 05-14-2007, 03:54 PM

OK, my 40GB hd still works fine, and it is seen in the bios, which the other drive isn't, so i guess it's a case of looking for a bios update...

Thanks for your help, I will update this thread with any progress.

Regards,
Mitch.

spudtheimpaler · 05-14-2007, 04:02 PM

Duplicate - admin please delete

spudtheimpaler · 05-14-2007, 04:05 PM

@okmyx, I'm having trouble finding info on an update for the firmware for the A30. You suggested the BIOS update - is this because you have had to do it in the past? I'd appreciate any info, even if it's a "cant be done" if you have any experience upgrading the bios

@everyone else its a phoenix notebios version 4 (rel 6) in case you happen to have the same

(have tried looking without much luck, toshiba's website lists the same as I already have)