Hello All,

Experiencing something out of the way , here it is ,Need help badly,

My System Specs,

500GB SATA HDD(Seagate) -->> SATA2 port (detected by BIOS and OS)

160GB SATA HDD(Seagate) -->> SATA4 port (detected by BIOS and OS)

160GB IDE HDD(Hitachi) -->> Primary IDE master (as by detected by BIOS only , not detected by OS)

LG DVD RW -->> Primary IDE slave (as detected by BIOS and works fine too)

Board : Asus M2N-MX
RAM -->> 2GB DDR2
CPU -->> AMD dual core , 1.9Ghz

My both SATA disks are full , so I brought in a older IDE HDD from a older computer and connected it to the only ribbon cable in the computer which used to run b/w MOBO and DVD-RW.

I am trying to install OS in the IDE HDD . The case is , IDE HDD is detected by BIOS but not by any OS (tried sabayon linux 64&32 bits , fedora 10 , windows 98 too).When I try live boot sabayon linux it crashes after the point of mount /dev/sdcX (viewed through pressing ALT+F1),fedora is unable to load too. But finally live booted Ubuntu successfully , but it doesnt show or detect the IDE HDD . fdisk -l does'nt show the IDE HDD.At this point I thought of giving up but my slight hope is that IDE HDD is detected by BIOS . Currently I don't have any OS installed in any discs , entirely dependent on live sessions,only disc to which i can install OS is the IDE HDD.

Any help regarding this will be much appreciated,

Note : Am sure that the jumper configurations in the IDE drives are correct.

Did you check if there's something in the log files when you boot into ubuntu. If the BIOS sees the drive the OS should at least indicate if it sees the drive and has trouble with it.

Thanks Gerrard, Will take a look at the logs and post em if I find anything suspicious ,

Thats right, if the drive is seen by the kernel, it will show messages in /var/log/messages or dmesg...

I had the exact same issue in the past. It was because the drive was bad. The BIOS would see the drive because there is a physical connection and the HDD controller was sending the proper info to the kernel, but once the OS would try to read/write to the drive, it would hang and miserably fail. /var/log/messages showed messages like:

SATA link failure, speed dropped to 1.5Gbps, Catastrophic drive failure, I/O error.... stuff you dont want to see.

Have you tried this drive with a different mobo? Just in case... its better to troubleshoot by elimination.

How old is the drive? Its IDE so I wouldnt be surprised it is dead... Chances are pretty high.

Thanks all for your reply,

portion of dmesg that made sense to me related to HDD&CDROM,

[ 51.878088] ata2: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
[ 51.914241] ata2.00: ATA-7: ST3500630SV, 3.ACH, max UDMA/133
[ 51.914244] ata2.00: 976773168 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
[ 51.980819] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/133
[ 51.980936] scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA ST3500630SV 3.AC PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 51.981010] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:08.1[B] -> Link [LSA1] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 23
[ 51.981231] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:08.1 to 64
[ 51.981654] scsi2 : sata_nv
[ 51.981829] scsi3 : sata_nv
[ 51.981988] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xc800 ctl 0xc480 bmdma 0xc000 irq 23
[ 51.981991] ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xc400 ctl 0xc080 bmdma 0xc008 irq 23
[ 52.293661] ata3: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
[ 52.769196] ata4: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[ 52.810839] ata4.00: ATA-7: ST3160211AS, 3.AAE, max UDMA/133
[ 52.810842] ata4.00: 312581808 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
[ 52.877417] ata4.00: configured for UDMA/133
[ 52.877513] scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA ST3160211AS 3.AA PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 52.877715] pata_amd 0000:00:06.0: version 0.3.10
[ 52.877761] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:06.0 to 64
[ 52.878285] scsi4 : pata_amd
[ 52.878351] scsi5 : pata_amd
[ 52.879146] ata5: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0xffa0 irq 14
[ 52.879149] ata6: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0xffa8 irq 15
[ 52.883935] Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
[ 52.884031] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] 976773168 512-byte hardware sectors (500108 MB)
[ 52.884042] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 52.884045] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[ 52.884061] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 52.884104] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] 976773168 512-byte hardware sectors (500108 MB)
[ 52.884112] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 52.884114] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[ 52.884127] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 52.884131] sda: sda1
[ 52.902675] sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
[ 52.902744] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] 312581808 512-byte hardware sectors (160042 MB)
[ 52.902755] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 52.902757] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[ 52.902772] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 52.902839] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] 312581808 512-byte hardware sectors (160042 MB)
[ 52.902847] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 52.902849] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[ 52.902862] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 52.902866] sdb: sdb1 sdb2
[ 52.925413] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
[ 52.931529] sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[ 52.931549] sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
[ 58.071912] ata5: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status 0x80)
[ 62.895059] ata5: SRST failed (errno=-16)
[ 63.235047] ata5.01: ATAPI: HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GH22NP20, 1.04, max UDMA/66
[ 63.235060] ata5.01: limited to UDMA/33 due to 40-wire cable
[ 63.406823] ata5.01: configured for UDMA/33
[ 63.406980] ata6: port disabled. ignoring.
[ 63.408178] scsi 4:0:1:0: CD-ROM HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH22NP20 1.04 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 63.408254] scsi 4:0:1:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 5
[ 63.429062] Driver 'sr' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
[ 63.431376] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 48x/48x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
[ 63.431381] Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
[ 63.431437] sr 4:0:1:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0

Above shows my 2 SATA discs and DVD-RW , no mention of IDE HDD , so I guess as lpallard said my drive is gone , will try only few more stuff that I haven't and will conclude or will close this thread as resolved,

Also attached is my dmesg , Pl check everyone if it makes sense to anyone,
thanks again for your replies.

Attached Files

dmesg.txt (28.5 KB, 28 views)

Just a few ideas... I did some research on the web (my lunchtimes at work are booring..!) and try these:

1. Try a different IDE HDD. This will eliminate the Mobo or other hardware problems...

2. Try with a different IDE cable. A faulty cable could create big problems too.

3. Compare dmesg with the following setups:
-No IDE drives at all
-Only the CD/DVD drive connected
-Both the CD/DVD drive & the "bad" IDE hard drive.

4. Switch the IDE Drives on the PATA cable (HDD as slave, CD/DVD as master).

this does not look good to me:

Some people have been talking about incompatibilities between the kernel & some nvidia based mobo's. I personally think it is very unlikely but who knows.

What version of the kernel do you use?
What is your mobo? Chipset? BIOS version?

have you looked in /var/log/messages?

Also, what does cat /proc/ide & cat /proc/devices will generate??

I see your IDE hardisk detected as ata4:So it is detected by the kernel, but seems to be not configured.

First check the jumper on the disk drive for master/slave/cable select. Some brands want to have "cable select" enabled while other brands want either master or slave enabled.

Since the drive is detected by the kernel you could use the fdisk utility to see if it shows up there. Run it in a terminal as root or run it in a terminal and precede the command with sudo.
If the drive shows up using fdisk -l then use cfdisk to make a partition table. Again, either run it as root or precede the command with sudo.
I just had a whacky idea. What if your kernel would map the drive as /dev/sda but that is already mapped to the first SATA drive? Hmmm. I would boot a live Linux CD and do the above mentioned commands in a terminal to see if that makes any difference.

Thanks all for your replies , tried all above mentioned steps many times using multiple live versions , no go , concluded my IDE HDD no good , I am marking this thread as resolved , thanks again for your responses