Hi, hope you guys could help me. A few days ago I decided to install a Linux OS on my PC, BUT the installers (OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian, Elementary OS) seem to completely ignore my HDD… I mean, every installer only can see the USB KEY on which it was burned.
I really do not know what to do, if you - guys have some advice for me on what I should doing in order to resolve this issue, please share it with me.
My PC’s characteristics are:
Asus MSI MS-7740
Description driver ST320DM001 HD322GJ
On 2013-05-02, Maxim20 <Maxim20@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> Hi, hope you guys could help me. A few days ago I decided to install a
> Linux OS on my PC, BUT the installers (OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, Linux Mint,
> Debian, Elementary OS) seem to completely ignore my HDD…
<SNIP>
> Must I give any other information?
Almost certainly… such as whether your existing OS (presumably Windows) boots up fine and whether you’re using UEFI.
BUT let’s proceed on the basis of probabilities, assume you have Windows, and it loads up fine, etc. If your hard drive
can’t be seen by Linux, then it’s almost certainly because of your BIOS settings. Do you have RAID or any other
idiosyncracy associated with your SATA drives. If so, that might be the cause but bear in mind that changing it may
stop you from booting Windows. If it’s a UEFI problem, I can’t help you because I haven’t had to deal with that hurdle
yet…
Reading through your post, my impression is that you do not use a DVD, but an USB device to install from. But you do not realy explain that clearly. Is that true, and when yes, how did you create that bootable installatiion device? And does your system boot from it? And when yes, what happens next.
The problem is that you only describe your conclusion (the installer ignores your disk), but that is your conclusion, better tell what happens that make you think so.
When installing from a booted USB stick the system thinks the USB is the boot hard drive. So you have to explicitly tell the installer where you want the install to go. It can not automagically know where you want to install and thinks the USBis the boot drive (which it is) and want to install to the USB.
> 1. How can I know if my PC uses UEFI or whatever?
On newer machines UEFI is a more modern replacement for the BIOS. Since your PC came with W7 it is quite possible UEFI is on it. This should be documented somewhere in the specs, most likely those of your mainboard. Having said that, more details on your hardware are required. Your HDD seems to be a Seagate but I can’t make anything out of “Asus MSI MS-7740”.
> 3. RAID - How can I check that?
A RAID is a combination of (minimum) two hard disk, for example used to reduce the risk of data loss by mirroring the disks. The “Explorer” or any other file manager would see this combination only as one disk. If you have bought your computer as a “normal” retail system with preinstalled OS not knowing what a RAID is, you probably don’t have one. Confirmation still would be better.
Following gogalthorp’s post, it may be easier to download the ISO image from the openSUSE homepage and burn it on a DVD to install.
It is not hard you just need to know what you want to do and tell the installer. You do NOT want to install to the USB so you need to take control and tell where to install.
You should resize any Windows partitions from windows to allow free space. Then tell the installer to create 3 partitions on the real drive formatted as swap (about 1-2 times memory) root mounted as / formatted ext4 (about 20-30 gig) and home mounted as /home formatted ext4 ( as much as you want for your personal files).
Not for me using the KDE DVD it wanted to install to the USB. But I was going to define things any way so was no bother. It may be related to the BIOS and how it reports a USB boot. In my case it is an older machine and you can’t just say boot order to USB you have to tell the BIOS to boot to USB every time you want to. So it looks like the USB is a hard drive that is first in the boot order. Newer machines may be smarter.
I’m pretty sure that WinXP does not grok UEFI. If you could install WinXP, that’s a good indication that your system is not using UEFI.
On the disk problem: I have not had any difficulty, but I always do manual partitioning rather than taking the defaults. On one of my computer, when I install with USB, the “USB” drive is recognized as “/dev/sda” and the hard drive is recognized as “/dev/sdb” - at least with Fedora and Mint. Opensuse usually gets it right. As long as I am careful with the partitioner, install works with either Fedora or Mint. The hard drive is recognized as “/dev/sda” if there is no USB plugged in, or as “/dev/sdb” if there is a USB drive. I don’t know if that applies to you.
When running the installer disk, particularly if it is a live CD, try (as root):
fdisk -l
That will tell you about all of the disks that are seen, probably including some virtual disks. It might give you a better idea of whether your hard drive is seen.
> On 2013-05-02, Maxim20 <Maxim20@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> 1. How can I know if my PC uses UEFI or whatever?
> 2. Actually this PC was provided with Windows 7, but I then installed
> Windows 8 (trial version) and now I have installed Windows XP SP3
> 3. RAID - How can I check that?
> 4. May stop me from booting Windows - Do you mean forever? If I could
> reinstall it, it’s OK.
I have to admit from these questions I have to ask following:
Why are you installing Linux?
How have you chosen your distribution?
What is it from Linux you want that you don’t have in Windows?
The reason why I ask is because your questions are perfectly legitimate questions but without already knowing the
answers to the questions you have asked above means that you are likely to find the level of control Linux gives (and
expects of) you intimidating. That’s not to say no-one is going to help you but if you are not familiar with BIOS
manipulations, then things aren’t necessarily going to be easy. The answer to your questions #1 and #3 are answered in
your BIOS/UEFI/or to use your word whatever.' How to get into your BIOS/UEFI/whatever’ depends your motherboard and
you should read the manual to check. The manual will also tell you whether you have a UEFI motherboard.
> On 2013-05-02, Maxim20 <Maxim20@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> 4. May stop me from booting Windows - Do you mean forever? If I could
> reinstall it, it’s OK.
No, not forever. You don’t have to reinstall Windows just because it doesn’t boot. You just need a version of the
Windows repair disk (or installation disk) that is identical to the version installed on the hard drive.
On 2013-05-02, kasi042 <kasi042@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> A RAID is a combination of (minimum) two hard disk, for example used to
> reduce the risk of data loss by mirroring the disks. The “Explorer” or
> any other file manager would see this combination only as one disk. If
> you have bought your computer as a “normal” retail system with
> preinstalled OS not knowing what a RAID is, you probably don’t have one.
> Confirmation still would be better.
RAID means `redundant array of independent disks’, so it is therefore only useful in the context of two ore more disks.
However I have known BIOSes with OEM Windows installs to have been pre-configured to use RAID even when there is only
one disk present. In such cases, I have had to disable RAID for Linux to see the hard drive.
I DID NOT used a LiveDVD (may be once). I created many LiveUSBs using either Ultra ISO or UNetbootin. And yes, I actually can boot the demo of these OS, but then when I intend to install it i cannot do this…
Well, a casual Google search for your motherboard (MSI MS-7740) shows’s quite clearly it’s BIOS and NOT
UEFI/`whatever’. So my guess is that after your computer starts, pressing Del or F2 will get you into your BIOS where
can find the details of your SATA drive configuration.
Well, a casual Google search for your motherboard (MSI MS-7740) shows’s
quite clearly it’s BIOS and NOT UEFI/`whatever’. So my guess is that
after your computer starts, pressing Del or F2 will get you into your
BIOS where can find the details of your SATA drive configuration.
The term “BIOS” is too deeply ingrained. If you tell people to get into the UEFI settings on their computer, most won’t know what you are talking about. If you call it the “BIOS settings” or the “UEFI BIOS settings” then there’s a better chance that they will understand what is being suggested.
