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mandriva 2008 on SATA drive (solved)


null
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The one and only "considerable trouble" I can think having when installing W2K after Linux, is reinstalling grub to the MBR. Using a liveCD or the Mandriva installation CD it takes some two minutes (most of them spent for booting and shutting down)- now how considerable is this sort of trouble? :P

And of course, you should forget about FAT32. It is only good for windows 98 and USB sticks- but totally unsuitable as a decent filesystem.

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In the past, when I dual-booted, I always installed win first. The problem with installing win2k now, on my new sata drive, is that windows doesn't know what the heck sata drives are. It thinks there is no H-D in the system.

 

I know windows gives you the opportunity to stick in a floppy disk with drivers if you need to, but I have not had a floppy disk in a computer for over 5 years.

So anyway, I pulled the floppy drive from my wife's machine, and connected it to my machine. I got the CD with my mobo drivers on it (sata, etc). The CD has 59MB of drivers and software on it. I am not sure which drivers win2k needs for sata. I found 2 drivers with "sata" in their names so I copied those to a floppy disk. When installing win2k and after it asks for a driver disk, I put in the floppy... but then windows says "error... can't find so-and-so file...". The file name that it lists is NOT on the CD anywhere, I looked and looked.

It's stupid that windows won't accept a CD for a driver disk instead of a floppy.

 

That's why I'm thinking about installing mandriva first, even though I know it's easier to install windows first.

 

The sata drive has been previously partitioned into G: and H:, both NTFS. G has around 30GB and H has around 125GB. I originally intended to reinstall win2k on G: and use H: for data. Since I have a separate linux machine (debian), I was not intending to install linux on this machine.

 

Maybe I can email my mobo company and ask them how to install win2k on my sata drive (which files I need to copy onto a floppy). Really the only reason I want win2k on my machine is that I like Nero Ultra 6, and a couple other progs. Also my son like to play win games on my machine since it is a better machine than what he has.

 

Crashdamage - that's good to know about nerolinux. I'd like to try it out.

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Maybe the driver CD of your mainboard contains a program, that lets you write a dedicated sata driver disk (at least the driver-cd of my asus-board contained it, it even booted of the cd and let me write the driver disks so I didn't need a running windows), some boards even ship with sata driver disks (abit ships at least some of its boards with such disks).

 

But there is not such a big problem in installing mandriva first, then installing windows and after that rewriting the mbr with grub, after installing windows you just need to restart your computer with the mandriva installation cd, choose rescue system and in the "rescue-gui" you choose reinstall boot-loader, it then tells you that it found a mandriva installation, you say ok and you can reboot to your mandriva, it will put an entry for starting windows in the grub menu too.

 

while I don't bash nero for linux, I would say having k3b you really don't need nero for linux

 

for linux games, especially when you are interested in ego shooters: UT 2003 ships with a native linux installer, I'm not sure about UT2004, but there should be an installer too, afaik UT III will have a linux version, for original UT there is a linux installer out there, then you have some native linux shooters like openarena, tremulous, nexuiz, war§ow, cube/cube 2/sauerbraten, legends, tribes 2 has a linux version, if you are willing to search a bit you will find games for linux, there are enough linux gaming sites out there.

Edited by lavaeolus
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yeah, I tried booting from the mobo CD a while back... and while it started like it was going to do something... it just ended up saying something like "sorry your Hard Drive is not HPI compatible...".

 

It was something like that, I can't remember...

 

will check on the CD for something to write a driver floppy. Thanks for that suggestion, I did not think of that. If not, I guess I'll just install mandriva for now, and ask questions here later when I'm ready to install win2k.

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mandriva 2008 does the same think that win2k (1999) does. "there are no devices to install to"

 

this new sata drive was definitely a waste of money.

 

An OS that is 8 years newer than win2k still doesn't know what to do with a sata drive. It asks me for "what driver should I try..." and lists hundreds. I choose (just a guess) sata-nv low-level driver for nforce, and say OK. Then it goes back to where it says:

 

Found nvidia parallel ata controller, nvidia serial ata controller, blah blah, silicon image [sil 3512] sataLink / sataRaid

 

Then it has:

 

do you have another - Yes, No

 

I say no, and it just says "no devices to install to", just like win2k. If I say yes, it just shows all the drivers again and "what driver should I try?"

 

The mobo is a gigabyte, with an amd 64 on it (but I bought the mandriva 32-bit). The driver/software CD is titled Nvidia nForce3 250 Series Utilities CD.

 

I tried a couple diff drivers listed. sometimes it then goes to a screen with "Autoprobe" or "specify options". I choose autoprobe, but just end up with "no devices to install to"

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Did you check if your SATA controller was supported? If not, you can't blame Mandriva for it. And I'd hardly expect Windows 2000 to support it without pressing F6 during booting and providing a driver diskette to get it installed. This kind of thing is common, and not every operating system by default has support for every single bit of hardware. Even more so in the Linux world, which is why it's best to check before buying.

 

See if there are some settings you can change to see if it'll get recognised or find a module/driver you can use when booting the disk.

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yes I knew windows would be a problem, since win2k is an old release. I had never done the "F6" thing during a windows install, so I was unhappy that it is only for a floppy. And since all the necessary drivers are on a CD, I'm not sure which ones to put on a floppy. I did copy a couple drivers that had "sata" in their names, but no go...

 

regarding mandriva, I just assumed it would recognize what I had. Linux installs in the past have always detected what I had on different machines. Maybe I've just been lucky.

 

The computer is a couple years old, I put it together myself. Its a gigabyte mobo with an amd 64. the new sata HD is a W-D.

 

Actually, I usually prefer 2 hard drives in my machines... so I think today I will buy a 60 or 80GB IDE drive to install mandriva & win2k and whatever programs I install. The SATA drive (160GB) will be for all my data.

 

After I get mandriva installed I'd like to experiment with emulaters like wine or whatever else there is. I've never tried an emulater.

 

thanks for all the tips and info!

Edited by null
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It is strange that in my use of Linux for the past 5 years or more, I have never been once inconvenienced by not having all those extra partitions. I wonder if it is because I use my computer to actually do stuff rather than hobbying and constantly playing around with different OSs and constantly experimenting. There is certainly nothing wrong with doing such things at all after all it is each to his own.

 

There are many in the world that are of the view that ntsf was only developed to lock other systems out of Windows stuff since the world had long been able to read fat32 systems.

Now the same is occurring with ntsf. How long will it be before Windows replaces ntsf ???. Not long I am betting and the claim will again be for :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: greater security.

 

Anyhow I couldn't care less about ntsf because Windows is no longer in any part of my OS or computer, and NEVER will be again.

 

Cheers. John.

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my main machine (this one) has been linux-only ever since I had it (couple years). My secondary machine has been win2k, which I don't use that much. The screen on it is really an LCD 23" TV, so it mostly gets used as a TV, and not as a computer/monitor.

 

my son likes to play some of his military shoot-em-ups on my win2k machine since it is a better machine than what my son has.

 

I would like sometime in the near future to be linux-only. I just have to bite-the-bullet and sit down and learn audio stuff and video stuff on linux. I like to burn dvd movies (back up), record my vinyl LP collection, and then do some lightweight editing (fade-ins, fade-outs, etc) and burn a nice CD.

 

one complaint I have with my main linux computer (debian) is that while I'm browsing the web, many videos or audios don't play. some do, some don't. usually a video or audio player will come up, and actually start to do something (like for 1 second) then just stop and show a blank window. sometimes it just doesn't ever start to play video, just shows a blank window. I have installed every plug-in and video player there is. Frustrating.

 

I'm hoping mandriva 2008 out-of-the-box is a little more multi-media friendly than my debian system. I'm sure it will be.

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null said:

 

I like to burn dvd movies (back up), record my vinyl LP collection, and then do some lightweight editing (fade-ins, fade-outs, etc) and burn a nice CD.

I'm certainly no expert on such stuff with Linux, but it all sounds very possible.

 

...while I'm browsing the web, many videos or audios don't play. some do, some don't....I have installed every plug-in and video player there is. Frustrating.

On this box I'm still using the by now very old version of Xine that came with Mandrake 10.1. Even an old Xine plays (almost) everything pretty well. I don't know what the problem you have is but something doesn't sound right. Maybe you don't have Flash installed and working and it's the Flash stuff on websites that's causing trouble? Can you play downloaded videos or DVDs?

 

As far as your problems with SATA drives I just can't help. I've avoided using them so far and still will for a while. Things just don't seem totally sorted out yet. I tell you what - I'm about to build a new combo server/workstation for my office to (partially) replace a very trusty but outdated Novell 5.1 server. I'll load Win2k Pro SP4 and use special heavy-duty 250G IDE drives. I know SATA drives are bit quicker than IDE and I could put SATA drivers on a floppy and F6 'em in or slipstream the drivers onto a Win2k disc for installation, but the speed advantage over IDE drives just ain't that much. So screw it, I'm gonna run something Win2k Pro natively understands better. I'll go for Tried and True.

 

But you may ask, for a server why not use SCSI? No doubt, SCSI drives (which the old server uses) are fast and dependable but big ones are expensive (jeez, small ones still are) and quality IDE drives are about as reliable. In this case speed isn't critical but cost, as always, is a big factor and I'll need plenty of storage space. So all things considered SCSI isn't really the best choice.

 

AussieJohn said:

 

...I have never been once inconvenienced by not having all those extra partitions. I wonder if it is because I use my computer to actually do stuff rather than hobbying and constantly playing around with different OSs and constantly experimenting.

Well, like I said, one doesn't really NEED several partitions, for many a separate /home is enough I suppose. I still say it's just a good idea, certainly at least for more experienced users. Multiple partitions does make multiple OS, experimenting and reinstalling easier but that's usually not why I've done it all these years. I mean, for example this box still has (now much modified) 10.1 on it, never reinstalled since it came out so obviously it's not a toy I play with. I installed 10.1 on several partitions for reliability and other reasons because, like you, I use this box to do stuff, real work everyday. Having everything (except /home, I'd guess) under / may not have "inconvenienced" you (yet), since Linux IS very reliable. But I don't feel lucky and it has saved my ass more than once, particularly a separate /var. I'm not going to go into all the reasons or different schemes for partitioning here 'cause this post is already too long and anyway Google will give plenty of info. Read up some and then decide for yourself.

 

Last, clearly I never should've said anything about installing Windoze after LInux. I was thinking back to the only time I've tried it, which was a long time ago on my son's box which had no NTFS partition created during the original Linux install, trying to add it first on the drive 'cause that's where Win2k insisted on it being etc....it was so long ago I'd forgotten how I got it worked out, but I sure remembered being pissed at the time. And obviously if there's an existing Win partition things are easier. One of these days I'll shut up....sorry.

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I bought an 80GB IDE H-D this morning, and win2k is being installed on it now. Then I'll put mandriva 2008 on it. The SATA drive has all my data on it already (mp3s, videos, etc). I'm hoping I can get mandriva to recognize the sata drive.

 

Regarding my video playback problems, one site that never playback at all is NBA.com. They have a lot of broadband videos you can click on, but when I do, mplayer comes up, says its loading or buffering or whatever, then some code shows up on the mplayer screen, then a blank screen... and "stopped".

 

http://www.nba.com/

 

there are several videos listed up on the top right. None ever play on my debian machine.

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The NBA videos are Microsoft (.asx) videos, suitable for Windoze Media Player 9.X or newer.

At my Linux box, they play only with a fresh nightly/svn of VLC 0.9.0- neither VLC 0.8.6.X, nor any other video player.

VLC 0.9.0 also has a browser plugin, but both the player and the plugin are currently "unstable" (although they rarely crash for me).

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Null.

 

There a couple of things you must check reference your SATA HD and I feel you did not check them.

 

First off you need to check in the BIOS that Sata has been enabled. It is NOT enabled in the bios by default.

 

Secondly it is extremely likely that your board is Version SATA and your new drive is Version SATA-II.

In this case it is essential that the links on the rear of the Drive are set for SATA and not the drives default SATA-II . See the Manufacturers info to find how to do this.

 

If this is not done then your drive will NOT be detected by any OS. Ranting at Mandriva is useless because Mandriva is not the cause.

 

You have likely wasted your money now buying an ordinary IDE drive when by being a little patient and searching, your new SATA drive could have been made do what you originally wanted.

Cheers. John.

Edited by AussieJohn
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sata was enabled in bios. I got another H-D anyway since I like have 2 separate drives in my machines. I'll use the IDE for OS and programs, and sata for all data.

 

I've been researching installing windows on sata, and found out how to burn a win2k bootable CD that has drivers and stuff already on it. I could have done that. Also, today I realized why the floppy disk that I copied the sata driver files to did not work when I pressed F6 during win2k install. Found out there is an oem txt file that you also need, that supplies info to the driver files. I did not copy that txt file to floppy. Oh well, live and learn.

 

I wasn't really ranting about mandriva. I'm installing it right now on my other machine. I think I will like it. It looks nice so far, and the install has been very user-friendly, especially the partitioning part.

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mandriva install is finished. All I see is the bottom part of the screen. The top half of the screen is just blank. It's an LCD monitor.

 

So I'm not able to do anything. All I have access to is the Session Type button and the Menu button in the bottom left of the screen.

Edited by null
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