Linux installer doesn’t see hard drive or partitions

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I am running Windows 7 64 bit on a MAR desktop (microsoft approved refurbisher) or something like that. I have also repartitioned the hard drive and have installed two linux distros.

I have tried to install several other Linux distros but they don’t see the hard drive or partitions when I get to the page where I am supposed to choose where to install the distro.

I have done internet searches and posted this problem on a couple other forums but so far I haven’t found anything that might be a reason for this.

The two that I have installed are PCLOS and Sparky Linux. I haven’t kept a list of those that don’t see the hard drive but they include Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, and several others.

I am just searching for ideas as to what might cause the problem. I have looked at the bios and tinkered with it a little but am less than comfortable doing stuff to the bios because I could easily cause my desktop to not boot.

I would be glad to hear any ideas about how the problem might could be solved. Thanks

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For an OS to “see” a hard disk it needs to have loaded a driver that talks to your hard disk controller correctly. You may have an unusual controller that is not recognised. Are you able to tell us what it is via the Windows Device Manager or “msinfo32”?

cheers, Paul

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[QUOTE=Paul T;994376]For an OS to “see” a hard disk it needs to have loaded a driver that talks to your hard disk controller correctly. You may have an unusual controller that is not recognised. Are you able to tell us what it is via the Windows Device Manager or “msinfo32”?

cheers, Paul[/QUOTE]
Here is the system summary:

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name HAROLD-PC
System Manufacturer Dell Inc.
System Model OptiPlex 960
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz, 2992 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. A05, 7/31/2009
SMBIOS Version 2.5
Windows Directory C:Windows
System Directory C:Windowssystem32
Boot Device DeviceHarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = “6.1.7601.17514”
User Name Harold-PCHarold
Time Zone Central Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 7.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 6.84 GB
Available Physical Memory 4.65 GB
Total Virtual Memory 13.7 GB
Available Virtual Memory 11.3 GB
Page File Space 6.84 GB
Page File C:pagefile.sys

What section is the controller listed in?

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In msinfo32 it’s under the following: Components > Storage > IDE
Mine looks like this.

Code:

Name	Standard SATA AHCI Controller
Manufacturer	Standard SATA AHCI Controller
Status	OK
PNP Device ID	PCIVEN_8086&DEV_8C02&SUBSYS_78171462&REV_053&11583659&0&FA
I/O Port	0x0000F0B0-0x0000F0B7
I/O Port	0x0000F0A0-0x0000F0A3
I/O Port	0x0000F090-0x0000F097
I/O Port	0x0000F080-0x0000F083
I/O Port	0x0000F060-0x0000F07F
Memory Address	0xF7E1A000-0xF7E1A7FF
IRQ Channel	IRQ 19
Driver	c:windowssystem32driversstorahci.sys (6.3.9600.16384, 105.34 KB (107,872 bytes), 22/08/2013 12:40)

cheers, Paul

p.s. Edit > Select All. Edit > Copy. Paste here.

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[QUOTE=Paul T;994412]In msinfo32 it’s under the following: Components > Storage > IDE

p.s. Edit > Select All. Edit > Copy. Paste here.[/QUOTE]Here is mine:
Name Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Manufacturer (Standard IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers)
Status OK
PNP Device ID PCIVEN_8086&DEV_2E16&SUBSYS_02761028&REV_033&172E68DD&1&1A
I/O Port 0x0000FE80-0x0000FE87
I/O Port 0x0000FE90-0x0000FE93
I/O Port 0x0000FEA0-0x0000FEA7
I/O Port 0x0000FEB0-0x0000FEB3
I/O Port 0x0000FEF0-0x0000FEFF
IRQ Channel IRQ 18
Driver c:windowssystem32driverspciide.sys (6.1.7600.16385, 12.06 KB (12,352 bytes), 7/13/2009 6:19 PM)

Name ATA Channel 0
Manufacturer (Standard IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers)
Status OK
PNP Device ID PCIIDEIDECHANNEL4&1A524476&0&0
Driver c:windowssystem32driversatapi.sys (6.1.7600.16385, 23.56 KB (24,128 bytes), 7/13/2009 6:19 PM)

Name ATA Channel 1
Manufacturer (Standard IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers)
Status OK
PNP Device ID PCIIDEIDECHANNEL4&1A524476&0&1
Driver c:windowssystem32driversatapi.sys (6.1.7600.16385, 23.56 KB (24,128 bytes), 7/13/2009 6:19 PM)

Name Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Manufacturer (Standard IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers)
Status OK
PNP Device ID PCIVEN_8086&DEV_3A00&SUBSYS_02761028&REV_023&172E68DD&1&FA
I/O Port 0x0000FE00-0x0000FE07
I/O Port 0x0000FE10-0x0000FE13
I/O Port 0x0000FE20-0x0000FE27
I/O Port 0x0000FE30-0x0000FE33
I/O Port 0x0000FEC0-0x0000FECF
I/O Port 0x0000ECA0-0x0000ECAF
IRQ Channel IRQ 18
Driver c:windowssystem32driverspciide.sys (6.1.7600.16385, 12.06 KB (12,352 bytes), 7/13/2009 6:19 PM)

Name ATA Channel 0
Manufacturer (Standard IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers)
Status OK
PNP Device ID PCIIDEIDECHANNEL4&2540752&0&0
Driver c:windowssystem32driversatapi.sys (6.1.7600.16385, 23.56 KB (24,128 bytes), 7/13/2009 6:19 PM)

Name ATA Channel 1
Manufacturer (Standard IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers)
Status OK
PNP Device ID PCIIDEIDECHANNEL4&2540752&0&1
Driver c:windowssystem32driversatapi.sys (6.1.7600.16385, 23.56 KB (24,128 bytes), 7/13/2009 6:19 PM)

Name Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Manufacturer (Standard IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers)
Status OK
PNP Device ID PCIVEN_8086&DEV_3A06&SUBSYS_02761028&REV_023&172E68DD&1&FD
I/O Port 0x0000FE40-0x0000FE47
I/O Port 0x0000FE50-0x0000FE53
I/O Port 0x0000FE60-0x0000FE67
I/O Port 0x0000FE70-0x0000FE73
I/O Port 0x0000FED0-0x0000FEDF
I/O Port 0x0000ECB0-0x0000ECBF
IRQ Channel IRQ 18
Driver c:windowssystem32driverspciide.sys (6.1.7600.16385, 12.06 KB (12,352 bytes), 7/13/2009 6:19 PM)

Name ATA Channel 0
Manufacturer (Standard IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers)
Status OK
PNP Device ID PCIIDEIDECHANNEL4&38BBC541&0&0
Driver c:windowssystem32driversatapi.sys (6.1.7600.16385, 23.56 KB (24,128 bytes), 7/13/2009 6:19 PM)

Name ATA Channel 1
Manufacturer (Standard IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers)
Status OK
PNP Device ID PCIIDEIDECHANNEL4&38BBC541&0&1
Driver c:windowssystem32driversatapi.sys (6.1.7600.16385, 23.56 KB (24,128 bytes), 7/13/2009 6:19 PM)

Hope this helps.
Harold

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Harold, you must get the hang of quoting – don’t quote is easier.

That is a standard Intel 4 port SATA controller so there is no reason for the OS to have a problem with it.
Do you have a SCSI controller?

It maybe that the disks are formatted as GPT and can’t be seen, but that seems odd. Can you post the info on the disk partitions. Start > Run, diskmgmt.msc, look for the Type column.

cheers, Paul

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Thanks, Paul for trying to help me. I thought that I answered this yesterday but I apparently didn’t do something right. Prior to today I was not seeing the reply button, just the ‘reply with quote’. Anyway I didn’t notice that the quote was not working correctly. My bad.

Disk management shows that the type is Basic for all the partitions. Drives C, E, & reserved have the file system of NTFS while all the other partitions don’t have a file system listed since Windows doesn’t recognize any Linux partitons.

To the right of Disk 0 all the partitions are said to be healthy. That includes C, E, Reserved and all the Linux partions.

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I wonder if it’s because you have used all the space and don’t have any free?
Check this thread to see if it matches your view.

cheers, Paul

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No, that doesn’t match my view. Nothing shows on that page of the installer. I have plenty of unallocated space that can be used. I am uploading a png file on my partitions.

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It may be your collection of logical drives that it doesn’t like. The easiest way to confirm it’s the disk format and not the controller is to swap another disk in as a test.

cheers, Paul

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I am running Windows 7 64 bit on a MAR desktop (microsoft approved refurbisher) or something like that. I have also repartitioned the hard drive and have installed two linux distros.

I have tried to install several other Linux distros but they don’t see the hard drive or partitions when I get to the page where I am supposed to choose where to install the distro.

I have done internet searches and posted this problem on a couple other forums but so far I haven’t found anything that might be a reason for this.

The two that I have installed are PCLOS and Sparky Linux. I haven’t kept a list of those that don’t see the hard drive but they include Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, and several others.

I am just searching for ideas as to what might cause the problem. I have looked at the bios and tinkered with it a little but am less than comfortable doing stuff to the bios because I could easily cause my desktop to not boot.

I would be glad to hear any ideas about how the problem might could be solved. Thanks

Hi houndhen,

Could you boot up either a Linux live CD or one of your existing Linux installations and run the following command as root:

[INDENT]fdisk -l /dev/sda[/INDENT]

(If specifying “/dev/sda” causes an error, use “/dev/hda”, but it should only be the case with really old Linux distributions.)

thanks,
Chung

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Here is what Chung asked for. Sorry for the delay in answering.

fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb9715f43

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 4176899 2088418+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 4176900 265538384 130680742+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 265538392 349429814 41945711+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 349433793 544327679 97446943+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 349433856 377450495 14008320 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 * 377452544 408918015 15732736 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 408918573 433963844 12522636 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 433963908 516939569 41487831 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 516941824 544327679 13692928 83 Linux

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Here is what Chung asked for. Sorry for the delay in answering.

It’s no problem.

fdisk -l /dev/sda

I put your partition table dump in

Code:

 tags to preserve the formatting for easier reading:

[CODE]Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb9715f43

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *          63     4176899     2088418+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2         4176900   265538384   130680742+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       265538392   349429814    41945711+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4       349433793   544327679    97446943+   f  W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda5       349433856   377450495    14008320   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6   *   377452544   408918015    15732736   83  Linux
/dev/sda7       408918573   433963844    12522636   83  Linux
/dev/sda8       433963908   516939569    41487831   83  Linux
/dev/sda9       516941824   544327679    13692928   83  Linux

A few observations about the partition table…

[*]Technically, there should only be one partition marked active/bootable at a time. Having more than one can cause problems because the BIOS assumes that there is only one default partition so it’s best to avoid it.
[*]The extended partition (/dev/sda4) ends at sector 544,327,679 instead of being close to 976,773,168 (for various reasons, it won’t always be exactly on the last sector). Unfortunately, this limits the sum of all the logical partitions to ~97GB.
[*]It’s odd that except for the 1st and 2nd partition, the remaining partitions have unallocated sectors between them.

I suspect that there are enough errors that the graphical partitioning tools (usually based on GNU Parted) in Ubuntu, Mint and Fedora are deciding that it’s too risky to try resizing the existing partitions to make room for more partitions. Disk partitioning is a complicated process so the tools err on the side of caution.

Options…

[*]Many years ago, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora and other Linux distributions moved away from mounting partitions based on static device names (e.g. /dev/hda1, /dev/hdb3, /dev/sda1, /dev/sdb1) to referring to partitions based on their file system labels, and then to the current practice of using UUIDs so even if you reordered the partitions they would all still boot just fine. In a nutshell:

[*]Backup the existing logical partitions. (Acronis, Partimage or another cloning tool that supports EXT2, EXT3 and/or EXT4 file systems is ideal.)
[*]Resize the extended partition to include the remainder of the disk.
[*]Restore the Linux installations from backups.

[*]Delete the existing extended partition, create a new extended partition that occupies all the free space, reinstall PCLOS and Sparky Linux plus any additional Linux distributions you’re interested in.
[/LIST]
A couple of questions…

[*]What’s the name of the bootloader? (e.g. XOSL, GAG, GRUB, loadlin, Acronis OS Selector, Windows Boot Manager)
[*]What partition tool(s) were used to create the current partitions?

On a related note…

Based on your interest in trying out many Linux distributions, virtualization (e.g. VirtuaBox – http://virtualbox.org/) might be very useful.

Unlike multi-boot:

[*]There’s zero risk of inadvertently making your primary OS unbootable.
[*]Provides better isolation between OSes — it’s more difficult for malware to migrate from one virtual machine to another virtual machine.
[*]More efficient use of disk space.
[*]Many other benefits …

Depending on what you use your Windows installation for, it might even be worth considering using Linux as the host OS and set up Windows 7 as a guest OS alongside your other Linux installations. Windows 7 is generally fine as a virtual host, but I’ve found Linux to be better at handling the extra system load when there are multiple virtual machines running.

Looking over the system info you posted earlier, you’ve got more than enough hardware for virtualization. Not all of Intel’s Core 2 Duo processors supported hardware-assisted virtualization (aka. “VT-x”). It’s not required, but it makes running virtual machines more efficient, especially multiple ones at the same time.

[*]In Windows, use CPU-Z to view the supported instruction set. Look for “VT-x” under CPU -> Instructions.
[*]In Linux, just run the command “grep vmx /proc/cpuinfo”. If it returns nothing, then it’s not supported. (For AMD processors, replace “vmx” with “kvm”.)

Chung

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Chung,
Quite an extensive reply with a lot of observations. Thanks. I will try and answer some of the questions but will get back to some of them later.

I am self taught in what I do and not very knowledgeable in a lot of areas. (71 years old)

The boot loader is Grub legacy. I prefer it over Grub2 since no one uses my computers but me. When I install a new distro I just chain load it from the grub menu.

I have used virtual box some in the past but never studied it or learned enough about it to be comfortable trying anything but the default settings. And sometimes it didn’t seem to work with the default settings.

When I look at the partitions in the kde partition manager, I too notice that there are two partitions flagged as boot. Grub Menu.lst is located on /dev/sda6. If I remove one of those flags, which one and what is the best way to go about it?

I have used gparted, easus in windows and another one in Windows to manipulate the partitions. Amazingly, everything still works.

Since I started this thread, I have installed Linux Mint Mate, and Makulu. Gparted lets me increase the logical partition from the unallocated space.

I probably should do like you said and include everything past the windows partitions in the extended partition and re-install what I want. Thoughts for another day

Thanks again,

My main thing that I use this 64 bit system for is Windows 7, Quickbooks, and Excel. My day-to-day computing that I do is done on a 32 bit system with PCLOS KDE as the main distro. For me the 32 bit system seems a little quicker. I have several distros on the 32 but system as well as Window XP. I keep them updated but just like to keep learning and seeing what is out there in the Linux world. The only reason that I bought the 64 bit system was it was a decent price and came with Windows 7 already installed as well as the installation disks. I have a couple of Quickbook customers that had Win 7.

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Chung,
Quite an extensive reply with a lot of observations. Thanks. I will try and answer some of the questions but will get back to some of them later.

I am self taught in what I do and not very knowledgeable in a lot of areas. (71 years old)

From personal experience, I think people who are self taught tend to be better at computing then many who have a formal degree.

The boot loader is Grub legacy. I prefer it over Grub2 since no one uses my computers but me. When I install a new distro I just chain load it from the grub menu.

Oh yeah, GRUB legacy was much easier to manually edit the configuration. I still use LILO on some of my systems.

I have used virtual box some in the past but never studied it or learned enough about it to be comfortable trying anything but the default settings. And sometimes it didn’t seem to work with the default settings.

Earlier versions of VirtualBox weren’t as polished as it is now so things are a lot better. One of the nice things is that PC virtual machines run a real BIOS so it’s basically like working with a real computer and all the hardware that goes with it, but in a virtual world. From your previous posts, I have a feeling that you’ll end up liking it even more than multi-boot.

When I look at the partitions in the kde partition manager, I too notice that there are two partitions flagged as boot. Grub Menu.lst is located on /dev/sda6. If I remove one of those flags, which one and what is the best way to go about it?

Because you’re using GRUB as your boot loader, there’s a small bit of code in the MBR located on /dev/sda. It’s enough to bootstrap the boot loader so it can access /dev/sda6 for the rest of the files needed to bring up the boot menu. From there, GRUB can chain load any of the other configured boot partitions.

The active/boot flag on /dev/sda6 isn’t needed. Most of the common partitioning operations can be done faster via a command-line so I would use the “sfdisk” (most Linux distributions have it installed by default). To fix the active/boot flag all in one pass:

[INDENT]sfdisk -A /dev/sda1[/INDENT]

From the sfdisk manpage, the “-A” (or –active) option says “Make the indicated partition(s) active, and all others inactive.” This will clear the flag for every partition except the first one.

I have used gparted, easus in windows and another one in Windows to manipulate the partitions. Amazingly, everything still works.

Even after the PC BIOS has been around for more than 30 years, partitions and booting is still part science and part magic.

Given the vintage of the OptiPlex 960 and the fact that the first partition starts at sector 63, there hasn’t been a need to deal with sector alignment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Format). Lots of fun! :rolleyes:

Since I started this thread, I have installed Linux Mint Mate, and Makulu. Gparted lets me increase the logical partition from the unallocated space.

I probably should do like you said and include everything past the windows partitions in the extended partition and re-install what I want. Thoughts for another day

Thanks again,

My main thing that I use this 64 bit system for is Windows 7, Quickbooks, and Excel. My day-to-day computing that I do is done on a 32 bit system with PCLOS KDE as the main distro. For me the 32 bit system seems a little quicker. I have several distros on the 32 but system as well as Window XP. I keep them updated but just like to keep learning and seeing what is out there in the Linux world. The only reason that I bought the 64 bit system was it was a decent price and came with Windows 7 already installed as well as the installation disks. I have a couple of Quickbook customers that had Win 7.

Generally speaking, 32-bit is definitely faster on older computers. 64-bit apps are larger so they require more disk and memory I/O. Even though Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor is native 64-bit, disk I/O is the main bottleneck. Of course one big downside to 32-bit is being limited to 4 GB of RAM, with the actual available RAM hovering closer to 3.4 GB after video overlays, etc.

In case you’re interested, there are several community run repositories of ready-to-use virtual machines of many popular Linux distributions for VirtuaBox:

[*]http://virtualboxes.org/
[*]https://virtualboximages.com/
[*]http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualboximage/files/

Have fun!
Chung

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Thanks for all your help, Chung.

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Thanks for all your help, Chung.

You’re welcome.

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Originally posted bygadget
The active/boot flag on /dev/sda6 isn’t needed. Most of the common partitioning operations can be done faster via a command-line so I would use the “sfdisk” (most Linux distributions have it installed by default). To fix the active/boot flag all in one pass:

sfdisk -A /dev/sda1

From the sfdisk manpage, the “-A” (or –active) option says “Make the indicated partition(s) active, and all others inactive.” This will clear the flag for every partition except the first one.

Here is what I got when I tried the above as root:

Warning: start=63 – this looks like a partition rather than
the entire disk. Using fdisk on it is probably meaningless.
[Use the –force option if you really want this]

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I typed as root in the command line:
sfdisk -A -f /dev/sda1
and this is the output

sfdisk -A -f /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1p1
bad active byte: 0xd instead of 0x80
/dev/sda1p2
bad active byte: 0x70 instead of 0x80
/dev/sda1p3
bad active byte: 0x43 instead of 0x80
/dev/sda1p4
bad active byte: 0x72 instead of 0x80
You have 4 active primary partitions. This does not matter for LILO,
but the DOS MBR will only boot a disk with 1 active partition.

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I typed as root in the command line:
sfdisk -A -f /dev/sda1
and this is the output

My bad, I made a typo…

The “1” at the end shouldn’t have been included:

[INDENT]sfdisk -A /dev/sda[/INDENT]

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THIS LINK is the sort of thing you might search for.

I have accomplished it several times with different versions and it really is easy, but I recently ran into the inevitable problem of slipping up when trying to perform a dual boot setup, overwriting my drive in the process.

The thing that matters most is to set up your version of Linux on either a bootable CD or flash drive in advance, and I recommend playing with that a bit so that you are comfortable with the system and know what to expect. In other words, you can run Linux for as long as you like without installing it at all (but it is handy to keep on your keychain). It will run much faster if and when you do install it.

Two utilities for creating a bootable flash drive are Pendrivelinux and LinuxLive[/COLOR].

Today (April 9) Windows Secrets Newsletter has a lead article that might have a better answer for your purposes than any of us.

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If I remember correctly from once upon a time, an OS generally needs to be installed in a primary partition instead of a logical partition.

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No problem, gadget. I bit the bullet and have followed your advice and deleted all the logical partitions and put all the unused space inside the new logical partition and started over with my Linux installations. I used Gparted to do it with because I don’t trust myself with the command line. It is so powerful and I might mess up. I am just a gui person and use the command line sparingly. I will mark this thread as solved. Thanks again.

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