# One for the techys out there.



## GreenNeedle (24 Aug 2009)

I am on my Bro in laws PC in Portugal and see some strange things.  It is running XP Pro SP3.  It has a SATA HDD.  Trying to set it up to format and get Ubuntu on it and I see in the BIOS that the SATA HDD is there as SATA1.

However exit the Bios and boot up it says 'No Hard Drives Found'.  Puzzling.

Then it opens XP fine and the drive is there???????

The PC is pretty good spec.  Acer Dual Core 3Ghz, Nvidea 512, 2Mb Ram, 500Gb HDD.

Any ideas?

AC


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## TLH (24 Aug 2009)

I think most sata drives get recognized as removeable devices. The bios is booting from it though so you have it set right.


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## LondonDragon (24 Aug 2009)

Strange one! Should at least say it finds the HDD, from my experience anyway!
For OS install sometimes you do need the SATA driver on a diskette.


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## JamesC (24 Aug 2009)

Could be because it has 2 controllers, IDE and SATA. The IDE controller will report no HDD found, which is correct, and possibly the SATA controller doesn't report, or is so fast that you don't see it.

James


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## GreenNeedle (24 Aug 2009)

well guys I installed Ubuntu......then 1 hour later I uninstalled it.

I can-t really see why people talk it up so much.

Yes - Looks awesome.
Yes - Works fast.
Yes - its free
Yes - It sets up all the hardware without even struggling.

Any downsides?

Apart from the fact you have to learn all new programs for each task you have gotten used to over the past 2 decades it is like entering another world where you need to be a programmer to use the darned thing!!!  Running things through shell terminals isn't my cup of tea.

I think horrible Windows loses on so many points but wins on the one that really matters which of course is.....

.......It is pretty easy to use once you've got it up and running.

Maybe when they 'automate' more of the 'harder to do' stuff I'll have another look because it does look nice.

AC


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## bugs (24 Aug 2009)

SuperColey1 said:
			
		

> Apart from the fact you have to learn all new programs for each task you have gotten used to over the past 2 decades it is like entering another world where you need to be a programmer to use the darned thing!!!  Running things through shell terminals isn't my cup of tea.



I used it a year or two ago, just playing on an old PC before converting the PC to a NAS device. I don't recall needing to be a programmer to use it. Which programs were you using?


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## GreenNeedle (26 Aug 2009)

I was trying to retrieve some lost files from it.  In the end I reinstalled an XP Pro SP3 version from the net, bypassed the WGA, downloaded a recovery program and voila.

The actual look of Ubuntu is nice and clean.  The layout of the prog menu is a little confusing for someone who has used Windows for nearly 20 years though.  After getting used to that you have to learn a whole new load of programs after being used to using Excel, Word etc for Eons.

Maybe I'm getting old (at 34) and can't learn new tricks anymore but it seemed to me more hassle than worth to learn a whole new way of things.

The other thing is the pomposity of the Linux people on their help forums.  I posted asking how to recover data etc and they gave me aload of code I had to type into the terminal.  I thought the days of typing code for the normal user were well over.  Where is WYSIWYG on Ubuntu?  Why can't I grab a program to do the job for me?

The other reason being there are loads of thread asking Can I use X program on  Linux.  Rather than give an answer to the OP question nearly every answer from the Linux crew is 'Why would you want to' which peeves me a little.  Fair enough if they feel the Linux alternative is better but the Op asked a question.

Similar to someone asking where to get T5 and someone saying you don't want T5 you want LED and not giving the info required.  At least on here we will give the answer and our opinion rather than just the opinion.

Anyway XP SP3 working perfectly.  Updating perfectly, Mplayer11 etc all validated and Windows Updates accepts it as original so problems solved.

AC


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## JamesC (26 Aug 2009)

I quite like linux and have used it since about '94 when I used the slackware distro. Back then it was a real pain with lots of script hacks needed to get anything to work. Since then I've used a few different distro's with red hat being the main one. A couple of years ago I started using ubuntu which in comparisson to the others is quite a doddle. I have a server running ubuntu with apache server which mirrors the whole of the ukaps site and forum and is where I test out new mods and updates.

The only reason I started using linux was because I hated the lack of any networking ability in windows 3.1 which was the current ms system at the time. Linux is different and does take a bit of getting used to, but well worth it if you like messing with computers.

James


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