hda drive not ready for command...

[z911]

hmmm... I'm not even sure this is the right forum for this post.

Anyway, running redhat 7.1, KDE desktop was freezing too often with DMA and IRQ timeouts problems for hda. I tried to logout from regular user account in order to run fsck. Logging out from KDE was straightforward (although relatively lengthy). However on logout from text prompt (I use text login) the system was caught in IRQ timeouts and messages such as hda drive not ready for command... the whole thing kept going on for over 15 minutes and I had to reboot the entire system. Surprise (or is it!?), the reboot sequence asks for a system disk since it's failing to reboot properly. I don't have a boot disk and I even tried to reinstall from scratch. When at the point of starting the actual installation process the installer stops and returns an error saying that it did not find any suitable devices to install on and that I might have hardware problems (which I strongly doubt). The same problem happens with redhat 6.2 installation. I should say I never encountered KDE problems with 6.2 which is why I doubt having hardware problems.

To make a long story short, does anyone know a way around this? I don't mind reinstalling but how can I get the installer going?

[z911]

oh yeah, I tried to run the installer in rescue mode but then it get to the point where it is loading anaconda and just hangs forever...

[Lorithar]

what makes you think the hda drive is NOT dead?

What kernel are you using.
What modules were loaded (relevant to io controllers/DMA/hard drives
What if any tweaking have you done against the drive. What sort of hardware are you using?

[DMR]

I'll go with Lorithar on this one; it does sound like a hardware problem is quite possible. You will get errors such as the ones you describe if you have a problem with your drive's controller or your IDE cabling.

Check/re-seat your IDE cables first.

Also, a few other ideas:
How is the drive partitioned?
Do you have another OS installed on the drive?
Have you tried the expert install mode, or are you just doing a workstation install?

[z911]

i'm using Redhat 7.1 Seawolf with no modifications at all hence kernel 2.4. there is no other OS on the computer and I did not try to install in expert mode.

The reasons why I think it can't be a hardware problem are:
- the drive is a little over one year old,
- these problems never happened with redhat 6.2;

about the issue of modules, on my last install I checked the FTP and MAIL options for the firewall with high security mode. Following that, working under root never caused a problem but my personal user account accused some unusual delays under KDE. The rest is history (see my first post).

All of the former does not preclude a hardware problem (which is always a possibility) but seems to point to an OS problem. I tried again last night and copied the exact text of the errors:

when installing:

this text is displayed only for 6.2 install
fdisk error: an error occurred while reading the partition table for the block device hda. The error was: input/output error.

and,
An error has occurred- no valid devices were found on which to create new filesystems. Please check your hardware for the cause of this problem. (that one is right after I click on workstation install)

When attempting a regular boot sequence:

Verifying DMI Pool Data
Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM: Failure (should go to C drive at this point)
Disk Boot Failure, Insert System Disk and Press Enter