eeebuntu 3.0 is not recognizing any partitions, cannot complete installation

[Kershaw]

this netbook (compaq 700 mini) was my sisters, but her baby's daddy (yes, lol) dropped it. after that it said it had no valid boot drives and to please insert one. i figured the impact ruined the platters on the hard drive and a new hard drive was in order.

the netbook takes 1.8" zif pata drives. which are impossible to find, except on amazon. anyway...

i tried to install xp pro on it, using an external cd drive. however, installation would BSoD after 5-10 minutes. recommending i uninstall all new drives, run chkdsk, etc. i said fuck you microsoft!

so then i put eeebuntu on a flash drive and the laptop will boot up just fine. i can even surf the net, etc. runs normally.

however, then when i want to install eeebuntu on the laptops (new or old) hard drive, the installer does not see any partitions available. the list of possible installation locations is completely blank. nothing there. i cannot reformat, partition, delete, etc, anything.

i know i can run a persistent copy of eeebuntu off a flash drive, but i'd rather use my 80gb drive i bought just for this stupid netbook.

hlap plx.

[equate975]

Are you sure there's even a partition on it? If the drive is new it's not going to have anything.

ls /dev/hd*
ls /dev/sd*

See if the hard drive is even showing up.

[Kershaw]

i can go to system - administration - partition editor and my flash drive will show up. 1.89gb of partitioned space and 4mb of unallocated space. my hard drive is no where to be found.

if go to the terminal and type what you suggested, it says "/dev/hd* cannot be located, no such directory exists." or something along those lines.

i can type in ls /dev/sda and it finds the directory. as it should, since that is what it is running off. but nothing for the hdd.

[TexasTerp]

You have to partition the new hard drive first, before you can write anything to it. Your Bios should recognize the HDD and you can partition it through there. Or you can hook it up to another computer and partition it there first and put it back in the netbook.

There is no directory on the new hdd, you have to create one first.

[equate975]

Sounds like your hard drive isn't hooked up right, I'm not super good with linux terminal from memory.

Check the bios to see if the HDD is there.

[Kershaw]

brody, stop being such a newfag. tell me how im supposed to hook up a 1.8" zif pata drive to my computer? zif pata will not hook up to a sata cable... lol.... and eeebuntu can see unallocated space, which if clicked you have the option to format and partition. and you need to come out to the meets more often. you've flaked for a month straight.

i cant verify whether or not the bios sees the drive since its the most stripped down basic bios i have ever seen. i dont see anything about the drive, but then i also dont see anything where it lists potential drive slots either. the only area which lends me to believe the computer is not seeing it is the diagnostic section, because i can run a memory test but the "hard drive check is not supported."

what a pos netbook.

im starting to believe that when it was dropped it ruinated something on the motherboard that dealt with the hard drive.