Will Linux Find A Driver For A Two Months New Hard Drive?

Novatian · 05-15-2008, 04:52 AM

I like Fedora 9 and Ubuntu, especially Debian 4.0, I plan to install my new 80 GB Hard Drive in a day or two, and ask, will Debian 4.0 have a driver for a new HD?

Or is it best to opt for a newer OP like Fedora 9?

I quite like Debian, for it's packages, and support from reading reviews.
Maybe Debian Lenny is a better option, and I can send reports about my hardware.

It is a Western Digital IDE.

Okie · 05-15-2008, 04:59 AM

umm, why would this Western Digital IDE be any different than any other? you never mentioned whether it is a PATA or SATA, (both are IDE harddrives)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integra...C_and_features

Novatian · 05-15-2008, 05:22 AM

Because I am new to Linux, and matters of Linux drivers for new hardware, I don't know.

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/pro...32&language=en

That is my new HD.

When I tried to install Debian 4.0 on a 5 yr old ATA/133HDD 3.5 inch Maxtor, it had a long list of drivers, but it stopped there, I could not find the driver for that HD.

Okie · 05-15-2008, 05:40 AM

that harddrive will work just fine, i have three of them myself, they are good drives...

jlinkels · 05-19-2008, 05:49 AM

Since when are special drivers needed for IDE hard disks? I thought the IDE standard provided a common interface.

jlinkels

snowtigger · 05-19-2008, 06:18 AM

hello Novatian,
Harddrives that attach to to standard interfaces like IDE (serial or parallel) and SCSI don't need drivers.

Your past experience of Debain not installing was probably due to the drivers for the IDE/SCSI controller. This is the device either built onto the motherboard or a plugin expansion card that speaks to the harddrive to tell it what to do.

jlinkels · 05-19-2008, 07:06 AM

Snowtigger,

Those drives do need drivers, but they're generic, which means that one drivers for SCSI and one for IDE serves all. Most often these drivers are included in initrd.img and then loaded by the kernel as module. If you don't use initrd.img, you'd have to compile the IDE and/or SCSI drivers into your kernel.

Try to compile a kernel without them and the system won't boot

I agree with the other part of your comment that the problem might have been an interface card or so, although I have installed Debian on dozens of different systems and never seen this problem.

jlinkels