[ale] Hardware question: BIOS not seeing my 500GB SATA for Kubuntu install

[Tim Watts]

Hi Folks,

I'm trying to replace a fried 120GB drive with a 500GB drive on a system I 
bought from Monarch circa 2004. However, the BIOS screen doesn't see the 
drive at all (and, of course, the Kubuntu installer doesn't either). 

By "doesn't see it" I mean that as the system boots and scans for SCSI 
devices, I hit the Tab key to enter the RAID User Screen and when it 
displays, both channels show "No Drive". I have it connected same way the 
120GB drive was (power & data cables); but no jumpers as none of them seem 
appropriate for my needs according to the manual.

Both drives are WD models. I've already exchanged the drive once at Best Buys 
so I have a hard time believing I got 2 bad devices in a row. Plus they were 
able to see it at the store when mounted in their USB harness.

Is it possible that the drive is just too big for the BIOS to handle? Even if 
so, I would think that at least it could detect its presense.

Any ideas what's going on?

Thanks for your time.


-- 
Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do 
it.
 -- Mahatma Gandhi