trouble installing DSL to hard drive

[mihamil]

I'm very new to linux and I am having trouble installing DSL to the hard drive on my computer as the only OS.

I booted from the live CD first, and attempted to make the partition table as outlined in the instructions but it just freezes up when I try to write the table.

I then tried to use GParted LiveCD to create the table when I realized what I think the problem is. My drive is being detected as "/dev/sda1". I don't know what the difference between sda1 and hda1 is so I proceeded with creating the table using GParted. I then booted from the DSL disk again and continued but when I run the command "mkswap /dev/sda1" it says it cannot locate the drive. If I run the command "mkswap /dev/hda1" it just freezes.

I apologize if this is a stupid question. I am very new to linux and have been working on this since last Saturday and I haven't made any progress (Except for formatting Windows ME off of the hard drive)

PS. I am graciously accepting any suggestions for linux distrobutions that will fit on a 3GB hard drive and leave some room to install XAMPP. My goal is to build a small web server with MySQL.

Thanks in advance

[rokytnji]

Sda stands for a sata type hardrive.

Hda stands for a ide type hardrive.

Do you know what type of hardrive is in your computer?

[mihamil]

WOW! Come to think of it I've only had this computer for about a week and a half. I never got around to opening it, and looking inside before I started. If it is sata are there special procedures I should take to install DSL to it?

I'll check what type it is as soon as I get home tonight.

Thanks

[rokytnji]

Are you following this procedure to install?

Notes on doing a Damn Small Linux install

[rokytnji]

Or are you using this one?


Installing Damn Small Linux onto your hard drive*|*ArsGeek

[rokytnji]

If you have a wide ribbon connection with a 40 pin plug going to your hardrive its IDE;

If its a small wire harness with a small black plug its probably sata.

[mihamil]

I am using the instructions from Arsgeek. The drive is an IDE drive. Why would linux detect it as an SATA drive? Should I use the first instructions you noted. I haven't tried those...

Thank you for all your help

[rokytnji]

I would use this one as it is from DSL.org which I think is the Authors site.

Notes on doing a Damn Small Linux install


When you format the drive use the hda designation instead of the sda designation you used when using the Arsgeek tutorial. I think thats why the original install froze up because you told DSL you had a Sata instead of IDE when you formated it. That's probably why DSL detected it as sda, because you told it so by assigning your new partition a sda drive letter. I hope you now have a basic idea where you went wrong and you are very welcome and Attachment 1250 to the forum.

[mihamil]

I'm not sure how I would have done that. When I format the drive using gparted it automatically determines it as sda1. How would I format it as hda1. I can give it that label "hda1' but the partition name is still /dev/sda1

I'm starting to feel pretty silly, I'm implementing an exchange server and migrating users from Oracle collaboration suite to it at work, but I can't get a 50 mb operating system installed on an empty hard drive at home... Go figure

[rokytnji]

I'm starting to feel pretty silly, I'm implementing an exchange server and migrating users from Oracle collaboration suite to it at work, but I can't get a 50 mb operating system installed on an empty hard drive at home... Go figure

I repair and build custom motorcycles and only learned how to use Linux in my limited way in the past year.