Red Hat EL 4 Installation: SCSI driver problem

[onomejiro]

PROBLEM
When I boot the installation CD, it starts to install but when it gets to automatic partition option, it gives this error :-

No drives found
An error has occurred- no valid devices were found on which to create new files. Please check hardware for the cause of this problem.

Now, I restart the installation process and select the option 'linux dd' to add the installation driver I downloaded from Adaptec, I tried to add it with fd0 and hdc but to no avail.

SETUP

Host
Compaq Professional Workstation SP 750
Pentium III Xeon Processor 1000MHz
Devices on system
-Intel Ether Express/100 driver e100
-Adaptec AHA-2740, 28xx, 29xx,39xx (aic 7xxx)
Mouse - Microsoft IntelliEye 3 button Mouse PS2
Video card - NVIDIA Ge Force 2MX
Monitor - Sceptre
Hard disk drive - working

I have tried installing RedHat Enterprise Linux (ES) version 4 (shipped media)

On bootup, I see
Adaptec AIC 7899 SCSI BIOS v2.55

On RedHat Installation, I see
loading AIC 7xxx driver


When I check adaptec website, I was able to download this driver
aic7xxx-6.3.9-i686-rhel3qu2.img
but can not load it to system.


Unfortunate for me, this is a fresh installation so there is no OS on it. I have tried adding the driver during installation but to no avail then I tried install it first but still to no avail.

Does anyone have this kind of problem? Please help!!!

[drl]

Hi, onomejiro.

I installed RHEL last year on a Dell server, and I needed to turn off the on-board "RAID". I don't recall if RedHat wrote that, but it was in the Dell documentation.

I recently installed CentOS (essentially RHEL) onto a SCSI-based system successfully.

The drivers were part of the install -- I did not need to get them from Adaptec.

However, the first thing I would do is make sure there is a disk in there. You mentioned the SCSI BIOS -- if a disk was successfully found, you should see some indication as it goes through the ID numbers.

Best wishes, keep us posted ... cheers, drl

( edit 1: addition )

[onomejiro]

Now, when I wrote Hard disk drive - Not sure???, I meant I did not know the make of the disk drive. But I was installing with the CD shipped from redhat. I'm anxious to resolve this. I hate to waste money cos the software didn't come free or cheap. Morever, I believe I would learn in the process of trying to sort out the problem at hand.

[onomejiro]

Hi, onomejiro.
However, the first thing I would do is make sure there is a disk in there. You mentioned the SCSI BIOS -- if a disk was successfully found, you should see some indication as it goes through the ID numbers.

Best wishes, keep us posted ... cheers, drl

( edit 1: addition )

The disk is there and it's working find but on trying to install the redhat enterprise linux 4 today, it still gives me the same error as before. The SCSI BIOS is Adaptec AIC 7899 SCSI BIOS v2.55
So I really can't deduce what the problem is? Oh God, I pray someone comes up with a solution cos I need one now