unable to detect primary hard disk in bios/startup

[Saddletramp]

i just installed mandriva one on an older dell optiplex gx300. when the system boots, it hangs right at the end of the graphical bar (obviously where it's trying to detect disks) and i get the message that it was unable to detect a primary hard disk (or something like that). gives me the option of F1 to continue or F2 to run setup. F1 works fine and i can boot normally. i've played in F2 and switched things around a couple times. get same hang time and can't find disk message everytime.

 

searches have just about all gotten no results so far.

 

thanks

[ianw1974]

Boot the Mandriva One CD, and from the prompt type:

 

fdisk -l

 

if it lists it, then it should be OK to boot and if you've managed to install it on the hard disk, it should also be able to boot afterwards. I'm wondering if problem with hdd, so try this:

 

Press ESC at lilo screen, and type:

 

linux noapic

 

and see if it boots. If not, add some more parameters to the end of the line, one of:

 

nolapic
acpi=off
ide=nodma

 

so your next one would be:

 

linux noapic nolapic

 

and so on adding the next one and report back with what worked to get you up and running.

[Saddletramp]

shouldn't have anything to do with the hdd, as i'm here now and like i said, it boots just fine if i press the F1 key. just takes a couple minutes (it seems) to get past the failed detection process. fdisk -l does see everything right where it should be.

 

the actual wording on the error is:

primary hard disk drive 1 not found.

[ffi]

Maybe Dell's hidden utility partition?

[Saddletramp]

problem solved!! :)

 

In the bios setup hit ALT+F then ALT+B redetects the hard drive

 

 

 

thought about that hidden dell utility. have that on another system that tried to mess with my dual boot setup.

 

thanks

Edited July 14, 2006 by Saddletramp