[tlug] Can't install RH 8 to Seagate Barracuda

[Jean-Christian Imbeault <jc@example.com>]

I'm having trouble installing RH8. The installer is having problems with 
the hard disk. The HD is a Seagate Barracuda ATA IV ST340016A. Initially 
it was having problems reading the partition table but I got passed that 
by formatting the HD using DOS's fdisk.

However the installer won't start installing. It first complains that:

"The partition table on /dev/hda is inconsistent. [...]Often the reason 
is that Linux detected the BIOS geometry incorrectly. However this does 
not appear to be the case here. It is safe to ignore [...] Using LBA is 
recommended."

If I choose to ignore the error the installer then throws up this error:

"Invalid argument during seek for read on /dev/hda".

I've tried reformatting the HD, even giving it Linux partitions before 
starting the installer (using a floppy util) but I still get some form 
of the above error.

What makes this install error even more annoying is that the server has 
some strange hardware for turning 4 IDE drive bays into some sort of 
hot-swappable bays. The IDE drive plug into these little green-resin 
adapters which then connect into a large cable that plugs into the 
motherboard. So I wonder if the problem is not with the HD itself but 
this weird HD setup.

I did successfully setup a similar server (after much trouble with the 
SCSI CD-ROM) but it's HD was a different brand, *and* the machine 
already had Linux installed on it. This machine had *BSD on it but the 
HD was taken out and replaced with this new, virgin, Seagate HD.

Can anyone recommend some more diagnostics or even a cure for this problem?

Thanks,

Jean-Christian Imbeault