Baffling PC problem

I had some spare bits and thought I'd build a new PC. The PC is an HP ML110 server with an Intel processor 8GB RAM, an old Adaptec RAID controller and 2 x 72GB SCSI drives.

Now here's the baffling bit.

I tried installed ubuntu and all seems well until the OS tries to format the HDD. It just seems to freeze. I repeated the installation and it froze at the same point again.

I then I tried OpenSUSE and it also correctly detected the RAID volume and the installation progresses fine until it tries to format the drive. The only difference with OpenSUSE is that it tells me that it was unable to put MSDOS label on the drive (can't remember the exact message now ) and throws other errors and each time asks if I wish to ignore and proceed, which is what I do. In the end it starts to install the OS and after a few minutes tells me that the HDD has run out of space, the / partition had 20GB I tried it with a bigger partition (by telling it not to create a separate home) and still failed in the identical way even though this time it had nearly 70GB.

I then borrowed and tried Windows 7 and Windows 2008 server and neither OS could detect any HDD

Can anyone explain this issue please?

 

Simples, it's f-cked.

 

I know that!!!, the question is how and why?

 

could be a problem with the raid card,had problems in the past with ubuntu and raid,ended up putting a small drive on the pata bus for the operating system.

 

Hi Les, I believe Windows not detecting the RAID/drives is simply driver related. MS have possibly removed support for this particular Adaptec. The real mystery is why the Linux OS are behaving as they are. I used to have the same drives running OpenSUSE 11.0 a while ago but then I was using an even older Adaptec card. Ah well, time to stop playing. The PC runs ubuntu happily on the SATA drive. I just wanted to put the data and OS on separate drives and thought that I'd use RAID (for OS only, the data is backed up anyway) simply because I have the hardware.

 

You could try updating the rom on the raid card.

 

I decided it wasn't worth it in the end. The issue is simply that the RAID and SCSI HDD are too old and the drivers are no longer included in the OS. It was easier and more productive to use mirrored SATA.

I found that even my obsession has a limit.

 

I just had a quick look on the Adaptec website.

I have a couple of 2942W raid controllers which are not currently in service, but W7 drivers are listed for them.

JC