Hard Drive Invisible when boot from CD

[n3wo]

I have encountered the following problem using both the windows installation cds (in an attempt to repartition the HDD on the cheap) And with the FC2 Install discs (after giving up and purchasing Partition Magic 8.0 )

When I boot from a bootable CD, The harddrive is not locatable. In windows this results in a "setup cannot find any harddrives on this computer and must exit" error, and in FC2 setup, this results in a "Disk Druid cannot find any media to partition, press OK to exit setup"

I received these errors both before partitioning my HDD and after. After partitioning the HDD, my configuration is as follows


Label Type Size MB Unused MB Status Pri/Log

DELLUTILITY(*.) FAT 54.9 47.6 None Primary
Local Disk (C: ) NTFS 60,894.8 55,482.5 active Primary
(*) Extended 88,051.6 0.0 None Primary
Linux(*) Linux ext3 60,055.5 58,132.4 None Logical
CROSSOVER(F: ) FAT32 27,996.1 27,982.4 None Logical
Local Disk (*) CP/M, CTDOS 3,584.8 0.0 None Primary


This list is from PArtition MAgic, and * next to a label indicates a partition unreadable/unaccesable by the current OS.

It appears that both the partitions I created (Linux and CROSSOVER) were created as Logical (I had no choice presented to me)

My two questions are: What can I do about the fact that the HDD is inaccesible when booting from CD, and, does it matter that my planned Linux partition is not primary?

Thanks in advance

PS, Sorry the table of partition info didn't turn out too well, I've spent some time trying to re-configure it with no luck

[techieMoe]

The harddrive is not locatable. In windows this results in a "setup cannot find any harddrives on this computer and must exit" error, and in FC2 setup, this results in a "Disk Druid cannot find any media to partition, press OK to exit setup"

I usually get this error when I've swapped out a hard drive and forgotten to set the jumper on the back to "master" instead of "slave". You might give that a try.

[n3wo]

I've never opened the case, and there is one HDD in the box, so I think the jumpers are correct. Also, Windoze XP boots fine from HDD, and I can perform actions such as defragging and saving to the drive.

[n3wo]

Well, I called dell before posting, but made the mistake of telling them that I'd partitioned the drive. They said they couldn't help as a result. (btw, I'd had this problem before partitioning as well as after) So today I called and simply said that when I went to recover windows (from the bootable cd) I encountered the error mentioned above. A simple change in the bios settings regarding SATA configuration fixed the problem, and I am now in the process of installing my favorite OS on my PC.


Of course I'm thrilled that the fix was so fast, but it's a little wierd to post two out of three responses to ur own question. Guess I panicked a little when I realized that if hit by a virus, I woudn't even be able to get Windoze back, so I posted sooner rather than later.

ps. I've noticed complementary quotes on the homepage of lfo recently, and would like say that I totally agree, and add my voice to the chorus of praise for this hugely patient and helpful forum.

[kkubasik]

and I am now in the process of installing my favorite OS on my PC.

I hope your not refering to windows.

[n3wo]

NO!!! I'm not, Windoze survived the process just fine, it's Linux I'm having to work at getting!

Linux is certainly my favorite OS