problems with new 250 gig HDD

M

mistafeesh

Geek Trainee
Hi.

I've just bought a 250gig hard drive, with the plan of installing Ubuntu onto it to use as a media centre type thing.

After having problems installing Ubuntu on two different PCs and with 3 different install discs, I tried to format it, first with windows XP and then with Mac OS X.

XP formatted it OK, but to only half the capacity. that's OK - I read the sticky post here about that... But when I put it in my mac it only reported it at half capacity too... My mac is fairly old (a 733 MhZ G4) so that may explain why.

Also Ubuntu couldn't read the HDD even just after formatting it.

I don't know whether there's a problem with the drive or it's just all my computers/OS's etc being so old!!!


any ideas?
 
mistafeesh said:
After having problems installing Ubuntu on two different PCs and with 3 different install discs I tried to format it, first with windows XP
Click to expand...
what version of XP ?

you need to have at least SP1 or higher to see more than 137Gb (if using less than SP1 then you need to slipstream your XP CD)

mistafeesh said:
Also Ubuntu couldn't read the HDD even just after formatting it.
Click to expand...
what format did you choose ? (not sure but i think a default Ubuntu install doesn't recognise NTFS)

BTW: i know nothing about MACs
 
Thanks,

The XP is SP2 I don't need to use it in that computer - I just tried it because I couldn't get anything else to work. I don't like letting it upgrade, because then it starts complaining about not being genuine:O It's also a fairly old PC - a 1.1ghz Duron (PS before anyone complains - I do have a genuine copy of XP - it's just currently on an unused hard drive - long story)

With Ubuntu, I mean I'd formatted it to ext3 using the ubuntu CD, so it should have been able to mount it. It came up with something like "could not mount HD0 because it is not removable"?????

I'll look into whether the Mac is too old on the Apple forums. I know that I can read and write on the disk fine with the mac which suuggests that if there is something wrong with it it's not so bad that it can't store data. Edit - it is that the mac is too old! There's a fix, but unless I have to I won't bother!

The HDD is actually for another old (is there a theme going on here?) PC which is in my living room. I can't remember offhand the speed but it's not much!

I really hope my HDD is not too new for my PC!
 
Could you split the drive into two partitions to get the full capacity out of it if all these OS's are having probs with it?
 
I tried splitting it into a 5 gig partition, a small swap and then another for the rest, installing ubuntu into the 5 gig partition, but that came up with the same errors when I tried to boot it...
 
mistafeesh said:
I really hope my HDD is not too new for my PC!
Click to expand...
you've hit the nail on the head
mistafeesh said:
SP2
Click to expand...
good

mistafeesh said:
I tried splitting it into a 5 gig partition, a small swap and then another for the rest, installing ubuntu into the 5 gig partition, but that came up with the same errors when I tried to boot it...
Click to expand...
if you want to use the drive install it to a 10Gb root, a 10Gb /home & a 2Gb (2048Mb) swap[ot]10Gb root and home is enough for most users, me included[/ot]

BTW: you need a HDD controller to see / use the full capacity of the drive, is drive IDE or SATA ?

BTW: although it will work fine if you don't use the full capacity
 
Thanks,

It's IDE

If I get a cheapie IDE controller like this will that definitely fix this then?

That's probably the way to go...
 
mistafeesh said:
It's IDE
Click to expand...

mistafeesh said:
If I get a cheapie IDE controller like
this will that definitely fix this then?
Click to expand...
no, that controller is only a 32 bit card and only support HDDs up to 137Gb you want a 48 bit controller like this , that supports drives over 137Gb

BTW: just learnt a hell of a lot about HDD controlers
 
Thanks for looking into that for me!

Looks like yet another budget extension... Oh well - it'll be worth it in the end!

Cheers,

Dan
 
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