Drive not ready for command!?!?

[jlassoff]

I have a PIII box with Mandrake 9 on it. Upon booting, I get to a LILO install I have going, book mandrake 9 and my kernel will freeze up and tell me:

hda: status error: status=0x00 { }
hda: drive not ready for command
hda: status error: status=0x00 { }
hda: drive not ready for command
hda: status error: status=0x00 { }
hda: drive not ready for command
hda: status error: status=0x00 { }
hda: DMA disabled
hda: drive not ready for command
ide0: reset: success


What is going on? It sounds like a sick IDE drive, but sometimes it boots normally. This is a production server for various things around my house, so consistancy is key here. Any ideas?

[mdwatts]

It could be a failing HD.

Anything in the bios you can adjust/enable/disable (DMA etc.) for the HD that might help?

You could try adding 'ide=nodma' or 'hda=nodma' to /etc/lilo.conf and then run /sbin/lilo (both as root).

G4L search results for 'lilo.conf nodma' (http://www.google.com/linux?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=lilo.conf+nodma&btnG=Google+Search).

[bascule]

It's a bit of a wierd one! some more info:

Type of chipset on MB?

Exact HD model/size

Is it a UDMA 80 strand cable?

What distro/kernel version?

[jlassoff]

VIA 694X / 686B chipset

Maxtor 91536D6 ~14Gb

Ive tried 80 and 40 strand.

Default kernel on Mandrake 9.

Thanks for any help.

[mdwatts]

See if there is anything in this thread (http://justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=106956) that helps as the problem is the same or similiar.