Re: hard drive not found

[Kent West <westk@acu.edu>]

Rick Dunnivan wrote:

> I have a Gateway PC with a PIII 450 and a 9GB western
> digital hard drive.  When I boot up with my Debian cd,
> my hard drive is not found.  I see in the install
> documentation that IDE-SCSI drives are not supported.
> How do I know if this is what I have?  This is the
> first time I've attempted to install an operating
> system of any kind, so be gentle.
>
> =====
> rick

I'm certainly no hardware expert, but saying that a drive is an "IDE-SCSI" drive is
akin to saying that a person is a "male-female" person; they are mutually exclusive
(well, outside of New York City and a few other places, that is).

Most IDE drives should be recognized without any problem. SCSI drives may require a
custom kernel in order to be recognized (but usually this is because of the SCSI
controller, not the drive itself).

Your best bet is to get a screwdriver and open the case and physically look at what's
inside. While there, make notes of all your hardware: make and model # of the hard
drive, video card, sound card, SCSI card if it exists, etc. You'll need some of this
later in the installation. If you can't find a model number on some of the cards,
write down the important-looking numbers on some of the important looking chips; that
might provide enough of a clue when you get to the point of needing specifics.

Since this is your first time to install an OS, I might suggest that you take the
time and effort to install MS-DOS from scratch (manually - boot off an MS-DOS floppy
with fdisk.exe and format.com and then do an "fdisk" and a "format C: /s") before
installing Debian. Then you can wipe out DOS and install Debian. The reason for this
is so you can get a minimal "feel" for the similarities/differences in basic
OS installations.

At any rate, you're embarking on a great learning adventure. Have fun! Be prepared
for frustrations, and for the feeling of accomplishment you'll get when you make it
through.