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FC3 install issues with SATA and IDE HDs.
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  1. #1
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    Unhappy FC3 install issues with SATA and IDE HDs.

    Recently got a new dell PC with existing SATA HD. I'm having a problem with a dual boot install of FC3, XP is already installed on an SATA HD and I want to install FC3 on a second, recently added, IDE HD. My problem is that the FC3 installer does not seem to find/see the second HD which is connected in line with the DVD drive. Any help is appreciated.

  2. #2
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    Have you gone into your BIOS and checked if the drive appears there? Is the drive jumpered correctly as slave?
    Last edited by Harryc; 14th February 2005 at 09:13 PM.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Harryc
    Have you gone into your BIOS and checked if the drive appears there? Is the drive jumpered correctly as slave?
    I can see the new IDE harddrive in the bios. I have the harddrive connected in line with the DVD drive. The harddrive jumper is set to master and the DVD is set to slave. And when I boot up in XP it still windows sees the DVD drive.

    It is when I try the FC3 install it only seems to see the SATA hard drive. I have not done any formatting or partitioning of the IDE harddrive. Do I need to do this before I can install FC3?

  4. #4
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    No, you shouldn't have to partition it for the installer to see it. Try putting the IDE drive in boot order in BIOS. Make your boot order something like CDROM, IDE Drive, SATA drive. Does Windows see the new IDE drive?

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Harryc
    No, you shouldn't have to partition it for the installer to see it. Try putting the IDE drive in boot order in BIOS. Make your boot order something like CDROM, IDE Drive, SATA drive. Does Windows see the new IDE drive?
    No, windows does not see the new hard drive. But I didn't see this as an issue since this is how my current PC is setup. However, my current PC has only IDE drives. I'll give it a try.

  6. #6
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    Changing the boot order did the trick. Now the installer sees both drives and lets me select where I want to install FC3. THANKS!

  7. #7
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    You bet, good luck.

  8. #8
    bdoney Guest

    Exclamation FC3 Installation Problem with SATA RAID

    My IDE/SATA hardware configuration is described below:

    Gigabyte K8NSPro - BIOS F6
    2x SATA WD Raptor 75gb in RAID 0 (C:\ Drive in Windows)
    2x PATA WD 1200JB 120gb (No RAID) <Primary Master, Slave on IDE> (D:\ and E:\ Drives)
    CDRW/DVD <Secondary Master on IDE>
    DVDRW <Secondary Slave on IDE>

    Boot order: SATA Array, Primary IDE, CDROM

    Here's a summary of the problem:
    I have WinXP Pro running on the SATA RAID array, and I wanted to keep it that way, so I chose to install FC3 on my second drive and dual boot the system using GRUB (GRand Unified Boot Loader) which comes with the FC3 installation.

    I've successfully installed Fedora Core 3 on drive D:\ but I noticed that during the install FC3 was never able to recognize the SATA array. When I restarted after completing the installation, I did not see GRUB and therefore had no choice to boot into Fedora.

    I am assuming that this is becuase GRUB has to be installed on the Master Boot Record(MBR) sector of the primary hard drive (in my case the SATA array). However, since Fedora could not see the SATA array it could not create this and at startup time it is not getting a chance to run. I did notice that on the D:\ drive there is now a "MBR" on it, but surely this can't be "THE" MBR. How do I get around this problem?

    I've read on some sites that I can grab the Linux version SATA driver, in my case Sil3x12 and recompile the kernel with it somehow, and the try to reinstall using that kernel. In this manner, the installer will now recognize the array and write to the correct MBR location. However, while I'm proficient at Windows stuff I am a NOOB on Linux so I'd rather not mess with a kernel ! Is this the only way, or is there an easier method? Thanks is advance for your advice.

    Mr. 3989

  9. #9
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    You have basically the same setup I have. I have 2xWD SATA Raid 0 Raptors for Windows XP, and a PATA 160GB drive for various Linux distros. Let me tell you, Fedora will not write to a software Raid setup. If you want to get serious with Raid and Linux, you can go for hardware raid (very expensive). Anyway, what you want to do is install grub on the fedora boot partition and then either use BIOS to switch between Raid and PATA boot, or what I do is use the BIOS boot screen to switch. On my board I press F11 at the boot splash screen and it takes me to a boot screen outside of BIOS. I then select to boot PATA or Raid 0. Using this method, I can select default boot drives in BIOS by changing the boot order, Raid 0 or IDE. There is probably a way to use nt bootloader to get to Fedora as well, but that is beyond my expertise. Maybe somebody else can help you there.
    Last edited by Harryc; 15th February 2005 at 01:28 AM.

  10. #10
    bdoney Guest
    Thanks for the tip! It worked great and I'm replying right now from Firefox in FC3!
    I actually didn't have to reinstall Fedora or install GRUB on the MBR becuase it was already there. While having to go into the BIOS and change the boot device order every time isn't the optimal solution, it will work for now. Hopefully at some point someone will write in support for SATA RAID for the installer program so that it is detected correctly. Thanks again!

  11. #11
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    You bet, good luck!

  12. #12
    bdoney Guest

    SATA RAID Drives Show up in FC3 but NOT Installation

    I just noticed something that could be helpful during my first foray into Fedora: when I check out the system components I can see my RAID Array, it even shows me the correct driver for my SATA chipset (Sil3112)! Sweet! Now it of course can't tell me anything about the contents of these drives since they are formatted with NTFS, but I'm just glad that a working driver for my board has already been written!

    Anyhoo, somewhere along the line Fedora has correctly identifed my SATA chipset and installed the correct driver. However, the question still remains "Why didn't the FC3 installer apply the correct driver?" it's apparently in the kernel already so why not? Does anyone know the release schedule for the Fedora distribution and is there any way to report this bug so that it can be resolved at some point?

  13. #13
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    I am not surprised that Fedora sees your drives, in fact SATA is widely supported in the latest kernels. The issue is your Raid. Get rid of Raid, and you can use your SATA drives in Linux.

  14. #14
    axxiom Guest

    SATA, RAID and FC3

    I have a similar issue with SATA and FC3. I've currently got two 80Gb SATA drives in a RAID-0 on a VIA VT8237 SATA RAID controller. On that, there's two primary, NTFS-formatted partitions with windows on and the rest is unallocated - this is where I want to install FC3.

    When I start up the FC3 install with the boot CD (I'm installing from the DVD ISO which is on another PATA IDE drive, FAT32-formatted, also attached to the system), the installer picks up the VIA/SATA/RAID combination and says it's using the via_sraid driver. Great.

    Then I tell the installer I have ISO images on a hard disk somewhere, and in the list of available devices I get /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 (along with hdax etc), which I presume are the two primary partitions I have on the SATA/RAID array. I point to the drive with the installation ISO (/dev/hdb) and anaconda fires up.

    But when I get to the disk partitioning step and choose manual part with Disk Druid, I get a message saying that the partition table on my RAID array is invalid and needs resetting. I don't want to do that - I'm attempting a gradual (eventually permanent) transition to Linux, with Win/Linux dual-booting for a while.

    TIA

  15. #15
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    Does anyone know if there is a SATA drive module that can be put on a floppy disk and installed as an extra driver at the beginning of installation? I think linux dd at the grub prompt lets you use a driver disk.

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