Re: Hard drive problem

["Paul Jursinic, Ph.D." <jursinic@xxxxxxx>]

Thanks for the reply,

>Exactly.
>
>So...
>
>Q#1) Are you:
>a. Installing Linux on an empty system?
yes
>b. Installing Linux on a system with another pre-existing OS you want to
>maintain?
no
>c. Adding a drive to an already installed Linux system?
no
>d. Installing Linux on a system with another pre-existing OS you want to
nuke?
>
I want to use this drive for Linux only

>Q#2) How old is the system?
Drive is 4 or 5 years old and used infrequently
>Q#3) What type of disk (IDE, SCSI, etc...)?
IDE
>Q#4) Disk related BIOS options enabled (LBA, etc...)?
LBA yes
>Q#5) Any unholy disk management software installed (Ontrack, etc...)?
NO

This would be Linux on an empty system.  I have been using Linux and
installed Linux on a couple of computers over the past year and a half.  I
am building up a new system out of parts that I accumulated.

The drive in question is a Seagate ST31720A: IDE, cylinders = 3305, Heads =
16, Sectors = 63, capacity = 1706 MB.  This drive was given to me.  It came
out of a Packard Bell computer and was functional I was told.  The BIOS
does recognize the drive and the correct characteristics are determined.

I tried to load Linux Red Hat 7.0 and used disk druid to partition.  I got
an error saying the drive was not configurable.

I then started DOS with a start up disk and ran fdisk.  The following
output occurred:

Disk     Drv:     mbytes     Free      Usage 
 1                1624       1624       0%

 2                  96         96       0%

I was unable to set up any partitions on this drive using fdisk.

I have never seen a hard drive show up as disk 1 and disk 2 when running
fdisk.  I just don't have enough experience.  I don't know what to make of
this result from fdisk.  Perhaps Packard Bell configured hard drives in
some special way?  Is this hard drive damaged?  Do I need to do something
else to get this hard drive into a noraml configuration?

I did try running fdisk /MBR but this did not change anything.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,   Paul Jursinic
Dr. Paul Jursinic
Medical College of Wisconsin
Radiation Oncology Department
Froedtert Hospital
9200 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53226
(414)805-4359