Missing Harddrive!

[TheGreatPoo]

I just successfully installed Mandrake Linux (the recomended installation) onto an older Micron PC and all was well until the Installer (DrakX?) rebooted my PC.  After the BIOS had initialized everything, it popped a message up saying "Missing Operating System".  I rebotted, went into the BIOS settings and discovered that my hardrive was gone!  The BIOS won't detect it now!  I tried to manually select it with no luck.  What gives?  Thanx to anyone who replies!

[Master of Reality]

loose cable on the harddrive, it probly just neeeds the cables tightened on the harddrive by being pushed in.

[LorKorub]

Either that or your jumper settings are incorrect.  Go to the manufacturer's web site and search for the jumper settings.

[Sleeping Dog]

Does your BIOS have an autodetect function?  If so, try it.

Also check the BIOS date/time function.  If it has reset back to the defaults, your MB CMOS battery may be headed South.  This can cause your box to lose the HD BIOS settings too.

You could also have a power supply issue.  Sometimes when a PS is going, you will be getting enough juice to power the MB and cards, but not enough to spool up the HD properly.

M.O.R. Bob is absolutely right.  Check first for hardware problems.....or as my late Daddy used to say, "When you are really not sure exactly what is wrong, fix the cheap easy stuff first."

Good Luck

Sleeping Dog

[TheGreatPoo]

I've done everything that I can with the BIOS.  Yes it does have an auto-detect and it won't detect it.  I hope that I don't have a power supply issue.  I know that the HD is getting power because during the installation, just moments before, it was clickin away like mad!  I have my jumper set to Master.  Should I put it on "cable select" or maybe just take it out?  I will check the date and time of the CMOS.  I wonder why it just disapeared after the install???  That's wierd!  Thanx for the replies guys!!!!!

[cloudstrife]

try resetting the BIOS to the factory defaults

[choasforages]

wel, i have had motherboards die on me, and i have atleast one board that doesn't have a working fdc. does the floppy still work,

[TheGreatPoo]

Yup.  I can boot off of the floppy right into the installation program just fine.  This is weird.

[choasforages]

odd, now, when hardware shits up on me like that, and someone has a solution that no way in hell would work. let them have a shot at it, thus giving them responsiblelty for the problem. then agian, you look like a dumbass if they get it working, then agian, owell.


well, it does sound odd, is everything pluged in right, did you mess with it?

did i mix my responce up with another, sorry im eternially confused

[ August 12, 2002: Message edited by: choasforages ]

[Sleeping Dog]

You may want to take a shot at reflashing the BIOS.  Here are some links to BIOS, motherboard and hardware ID sites:

http://www.wimsbios.com/
http://pq.ozersk.ru/ftp/hardware/mb/award_BIOS_codes.html
http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/reference/idhware.htm
http://www.plasma-online.de/

The third and fourth ones are worth bookmarking in particular, as they deal with how to ID all kinds of hardware.

Sleeping Dog

[Sleeping Dog]

Something else occurred to me.  How did you have the drive formatted in the first place?  UNIX/LINUX type OS's don't work with certain Windows partitioning.

Sleeping Dog

[TheGreatPoo]

I wanted this to be a Linux only machine so when DrakX asked me what to do about partitioning, I chose the "Erase entire disk" option.  So the hardrive should have been completely erased.  I wanted to start from scratch.

I haven't tried messing with the hardware yet (been too busy or tired; I'm at work now) but I will this afternoon.

I will try visiting those sites to flash my BIOS and thanx for the info.

If anyone needs anymore information on my system, It's a Micron PC with a Micronics MB.  The AT style MB has built in audio (which DrakX did not detect), an S3 Virge video card, an HP ethernet card, a 2.2GB Western Digital hardrive, and it is powered by a 180MHz Pentium Pro with 64MB of RAM.  Not the newest or fastest computer but it gets the job done.  Plus, I think I read somewhere that Linux runs exceptionaly good and fast on older hardware too.

Thanx for everyone's replies and I hope ya'll (yes I'm from Texas) will stick with me til I get it workin.  Thanx!

[Master of Reality]

its probly got Ext. 2 (or Ext. 3) file system then. Therefore any windows software will not detect it.

[TheGreatPoo]

Are you refering to the BIOS?  I'm not sure but I don't think the BIOS is specific to windows as it gives me an option to choose "Other" instead of "DOS" for the large disk support.  Interesting point though.

[Sleeping Dog]

If you just "erased" the drive as opposed to reformatting it, that could be causing the problem.  This would be especially true if it had Windows on it before and had one or more compressed partitions.  You might also consider doing a Google search on "different kinds of disk partitions" or something similar.  You might find info that can fix your issue and help you plan your HD setup strategy too.

Prior to any new OS install on an old box, it is always a good idea to flash-upgrade the BIOS.  Flash upgrades can help cure all kinds of boogery issues.  Most BIOS upgrade sources will give a full description of what each subsequent upgrade corrected.  If you have not done a BIOS flash before, then:

1.  Read the instructions over and over until you are absolutely sure that you understand the process.
2.  Be ABSOLUTELY SURE that you use the correct flash download for your motherboard BIOS.  Sometimes the same model of MB will have several different release versions.

There are explanations and utilities for doing this that are provided on a couple of the links that I gave to you earlier.

Good Luck!  Hope you get it fixed.

Sleeping Dog