frmatting new hard drive to be fat 32&need all o.k.s for linux-hardy startup

mybovets · 06-06-2008, 12:29 PM

two issues that may/may not be related:1;when I press the power on button for my computer tower and the power on self test shows ,it reveals that I have two failures here ;loading hardware drivers and setting kernel values. I'm able to go online to internet but,some of my devices like printer ,fax,and web cam don't seem to want to work for me.2;I have a dedicated 30 gig hard drive set as master for linux ubuntu hardy operating system and want to have my new mac leopard 10.5 single user operating system disc I purchased to load up onto a new 500 gig western digital e.i.d.e. hard drive set as slave ,but, first must get this new hard drive to be fat 32 fo5rmatted so it will boot up. can you please instruct/guide me through this step by step
thanks for all your help
mybovets

pixellany · 06-06-2008, 01:00 PM

welcome to LQ...

This a bit confusing. Please tell us what is installed on the computer now. eg Linux (version) , Windows, Mac OS, etc.

With respect to the new harddrive:
Formatting to FAT32 will not make it boot.
For Linux, you don't want FAT32

To install Ubuntu on the new harddrive, just boot from the CD and follow instructions. The installer will partition and format the drive.

Wim Sturkenboom · 06-06-2008, 01:13 PM

1)
Loading hadrware drivers and setting kernel values doesn't have to do with POST but with the operating system. If I understand you correctly that is Ubuntu.
Please post the exact messages; you can (probably) find those message back in /var/log/mesages and/or with dmesg
Please post the exact problems with your devices.

2)
Why do you have to format a HD to bootup? If you want to install Leopard on it, I suppose that Leopard will see the drive and give you the option to partition/format the HD(s) during the install. I'm however not familiar with Mac OS.
If it's not recognized by Leopard during the install, there might be something else wrong? First thing to check is if the HD is recognized in the BIOS? If it's recognized by the BIOS, you can use Ubuntu to see if an OS can recognize the disk using the command sudo fdisk -l.

Code:

wim@desktop1:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Password:

Disk /dev/sda: 251.0 GB, 251000193024 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30515 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        3264    26218048+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            3265       26892   189791910    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5            3265        7180    31455238+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6            7181       10444    26218048+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sda7           10445       13708    26218048+  83  Linux
/dev/sda8           13709       13838     1044193+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda9           13839       26892   104856223+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 32 MB, 32112640 bytes
2 heads, 32 sectors/track, 980 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 64 * 512 = 32768 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               2         980       31328    4  FAT16 <32M
wim@desktop1:~$

sda is my HD and has a number of paritions (sda1 .. sda9); sdb is a memory card and sdb1 is the only partition on it; if Ubuntu sees the disk, you should also see something like sdb (or sdc or sdd etc). If the new disk is already partitioned you will see something like sdb1 for your new disk. You can post the output of the fdisk command (like I did) so we can have a look at it if you don't come right. Instead of disks starting with sd, they might start with hd or even something else.

PS 1) Formatting 500GB as FAT32 does not really sound like an option to me.
PS 2) Can you give some details about your hardware?