[ale] G4L disk access problem: Dell E6410

[Dow Hurst]

Thanks in advance for your help!

The latest G4L, Ghost for Linux, refuses to access the hard drive on a Dell
E6410 laptop.  The error message is "hdparm: ioctl 0x304 failed:
inappropriate ioctl for device", then "hdparm: HDIO_GET_IDENTITY:
inappropriate ioctl for device".

The user selected the latest stable kernel from the g4l boot menu, selected
option 1 which is g4l, then selected raw mode, and then click and clone.
When she selected the target /dev/sda was when the error message came back.
I double checked with her that she had selected the bx38.4 2.6.38.4 april 21
2011 kernel.  Somehow I think I'm missing something simple here that
pertains to the Dell controller or drive.  I dimly remember running into
some problem with the disk controller a year ago when first installing
Ubuntu over the Vista Home that had to do with the controller and solid
state disk support.  There is a regular 500Gb SATA drive in the laptop that
the bios is warning on boot has "imminent disk failure" problems.  We are
running Dell Diagnostics on the drive now.  I'm just stumped by the G4L
error message.  Her fdisk output that she sent me also looks like this:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0005496a
Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          13       96256   83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2              13       60802   488288257    5  Extended
/dev/sda5              13        1958    15624192   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6            1958        4389    19529728   83  Linux
/dev/sda7            4389       60802   453132288   83  Linux

I would appreciate any advice on how to get g4l to read /dev/sda.

Best wishes,
Dow
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