I'm trying to load Redhat 9 on an HP s7320n slimline PC which is currently running Windows XP Home. I created a Linux partition and swap space using Partition Magic 8.0. When I reboot to the Redhat CD, anaconda starts to run until it can't find the hard drive. I get the error message: "No drives found. An error has occurred - no valid devices were found on which to create new file systems. Please check your hardware for the cause of the problem." The Redhat CDs are a couple of years old, from a Redhat Linux 9 for Dummies book. Do I need new drivers to find the hard drive? The machine is fairly new model, and has an IDE hard drive ST3200826AS. Any advice is helpful. I've successfully loaded Redhat 9 before, on an older laptop, so I'm not entirely new to this, but I haven't worked through a problem like this before.

I'd personally get myself a new distro rather than load such an old one...

But it should find the drive unless there is something about the chipset it doesn't like...

Try mandriva 2006 or suse 10 or FC4 or something...

Or

you can go through the long and painfull process of reinstalling windows, and when you install XP, only set the amount of space on the drive you want XP to take soo you dont have to use partition magic.

It is really odd that RH 9 cant see the HD, I used RH 9 for a few years. I had a dual booting system as well

I don't know what when wrong by the error message from anaconda (I don't even remember what's anaconda is

It may not seen the hard drive. In that case, check `dmesg` output and search for messages about hard disk detection (for ex. `dmesg | grep hd[a-d]`, if it's IDE).

Or maybe it's a partition thing. PartitionMagic may have created the partition in such a way that Linux is not seeing it. Try running the cfdisk (or other partitioning program) from Linux, and check the partitions and their types. After that, try formatting (something like `mkfs.ext3 /dev/$root_partition`) the partition you want to install on by hand, and run anaconda again.

Also, getting a newer distro will help, not only in this issue, but many others to come.

Good luck.

Instead of creating the Linux partitions before the installation, leave it as free space (just remove the ones you plan to use), next run the installer again and let Anaconda do the partitioning on the free space.

HI arwenstein,

I backup some answers here,i.e.

I think you should get a newer distro (can try Fedora Core, since it is the continuation of REDHAT).
My favorite method is to install MS XP and leave the rest of the space free, then install Linux and format a partition with fat32/vfat (in linux you can format wich ever size you want) to allow inter OS comunication.
Nevertheless RH9 should detect you disk. it is starnge it does'nt.

JdogPC

You say your drive is IDE, but its not. Perhaps you need to be preloading the sata module and red hat doesnt by default. You have Serial ATA not IDE. Check out the page:

http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/...81,633,00.html

Try passing the sata (or in my case sata_nv) kernel module apporiate for your controler to grub.

If it's sata, then you will definately want a newer OS...

Dump RH. Get a current OS.