Debian install failure kills hard drive?

**absolutmauser** · 09-21-2003

Greetings,

Long time no post.

I just tried to install the latest stable Debian on my box. I partitioned with PM8 and went through the initial install of the kernel and modules. Debian went on my 30GB maxtor drive, slave on the primary IDE channel. I put LILO on my master. On reboot, I selected the debian install to boot and it failed. When I rebooted, BIOS can no longer detect the 30GB drive where I installed Debian and none of the diagnostics I have used can find it either. Is the drive toast? Or is there some other way to get it working? Thanks!

AbM

**bpark** · 09-21-2003

The drive is not toast. How old is your hard drive? What did you use to partition the disk with? You should be able to use something like cfdisk to seee what's on it. You can boot the computer with the Debian disk again and use cfdisk within that menu driven environment.

**absolutmauser** · 09-21-2003

It's a Maxtor 30GB, ATA100, 5400 RPM. Don't know exactly how old the model is, but I've had it for about three or four years. I can't get it recognized by the BIOS at all. None of the recovery programs under XP or my functioning Slack install can find it. It was working fine prior to my installing Debian 3R1. If I set the jumper to Master w/ Slave on my main 80GB WD drive, the system works extremely slowly and the Maxtor drive is not detected. If I set the 80GB drive to single drive, the system runs fine but still no detection.

~AbM

**bpark** · 09-22-2003

Leave your 80G as primary master and the other as primary slave. Once that's set up, boot with the Debian disk and go into the menu that says partition disk (note, unless you actually write the partition, nothing will be lost. You can just hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot the system). See if it recognizes it there. /dev/hda would be the primary master and /dev/hdb would be primary slave. Depending on how many paritions you have on each disk, you will also have number such as /dev/hda1 or /dev/hdb2 and for each partition. Let me know how it goes.

**absolutmauser** · 09-23-2003

Originally Posted by bpark

Leave your 80G as primary master and the other as primary slave. Once that's set up, boot with the Debian disk and go into the menu that says partition disk (note, unless you actually write the partition, nothing will be lost. You can just hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot the system). See if it recognizes it there. /dev/hda would be the primary master and /dev/hdb would be primary slave. Depending on how many paritions you have on each disk, you will also have number such as /dev/hda1 or /dev/hdb2 and for each partition. Let me know how it goes.

Sadly, the Debian installer can't find the drive anymore either. I used Partition Magic 8, abbreviated above as PM8, to make the partitions. The failure only occurred after mounting and transferring the kernels. PM8 was able to see the drive until after I performed the initial kernel install. I've also tried the utils on my slack startup disk and an old Mandrake 7 install disk. None of them can find the drive, it doesn't come up in BIOS, and PM doesn't see it in Windows. I think the drive may ultimately find a new home in the circular file.

~AbM

**bpark** · 09-23-2003

Are you using cfdisk? Or are you using PM8? Even if you created the partitions using PM8, cfdisk should at lease see that the disk exists. Did you check the hard disk modes (master, slave)?

**absolutmauser** · 09-23-2003

Originally Posted by bpark

Are you using cfdisk? Or are you using PM8? Even if you created the partitions using PM8, cfdisk should at lease see that the disk exists. Did you check the hard disk modes (master, slave)?

I used CFDISK from the debian install CD and it can't see it. It also can't see it from Slackware running on hda. All the jumpers are set properly. 80GB as master w/ slave, and the 30GB as slave. It intermittently sees the 30GB as 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0 in the BIOS, but even then I can't get at it weith CFDISK or PM8.

~AbM

**bpark** · 09-23-2003

Have you tried using JUST that hard drive without the 80G?

**absolutmauser** · 09-24-2003

haha! An excellent suggestion and solution. Thanks bpark! I set up the 30GB as a single drive and it came up in BIOS, then I used the Slack 9 install disk to wipe it with CFDISK. I have repartitioned with CFDISK and now I'm embarking on another shot at Debian. Thanks very much, I'm sure I'll be back with another issue in short order.

AbM

**bpark** · 09-24-2003

How old is this drive? What caused it in the first place?

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