Rick Dunnivan wrote: > I have a Gateway PC with a PIII 450 and a 9GB western > digital hard drive. When I boot up with my Debian cd, > my hard drive is not found. I see in the install > documentation that IDE-SCSI drives are not supported. > How do I know if this is what I have? This is the > first time I've attempted to install an operating > system of any kind, so be gentle. > > ===== > rick
I'm certainly no hardware expert, but saying that a drive is an "IDE-SCSI" drive is akin to saying that a person is a "male-female" person; they are mutually exclusive (well, outside of New York City and a few other places, that is). Most IDE drives should be recognized without any problem. SCSI drives may require a custom kernel in order to be recognized (but usually this is because of the SCSI controller, not the drive itself). Your best bet is to get a screwdriver and open the case and physically look at what's inside. While there, make notes of all your hardware: make and model # of the hard drive, video card, sound card, SCSI card if it exists, etc. You'll need some of this later in the installation. If you can't find a model number on some of the cards, write down the important-looking numbers on some of the important looking chips; that might provide enough of a clue when you get to the point of needing specifics. Since this is your first time to install an OS, I might suggest that you take the time and effort to install MS-DOS from scratch (manually - boot off an MS-DOS floppy with fdisk.exe and format.com and then do an "fdisk" and a "format C: /s") before installing Debian. Then you can wipe out DOS and install Debian. The reason for this is so you can get a minimal "feel" for the similarities/differences in basic OS installations. At any rate, you're embarking on a great learning adventure. Have fun! Be prepared for frustrations, and for the feeling of accomplishment you'll get when you make it through.
