Thinkpad 600 hard drive is not recognized.

Support knowledgebase (thinkpad_boot)
Applies to

SuSE Linux: All versions

Symptom:

YaST or YaST2 does not detect a hard drive when installing SuSE Linux.

Reason:

Because of a problem in the BIOS, the geometry of large hard drives is not properly recognized.

Solution:

Start the installation from the CD. At the Boot prompt (boot:) type the following:

linux hda=1299,240,63

The above values represent the Cylinders/Heads/Sectors (CHS) for an 11 GB hard drive (these values are in LBA mode)

and they must be passed to your kernel, so that it can understand the geometry of your harddrive. These values must be passed to your kernel every time you boot the system.
YaST/YaST2, the installation tool, should automatically add this line to the lilo configuration file:

/etc/lilo.conf

If this line does not appear in that file, then you will need to use YaST/YaST2 or an editor of your choice to add it manually.
Configuration of the file /etc/lilo.conf: Please add in this file the line

linux hda=1299,240,63

to the Append-Line for Hardware parameter


Keywords: THINKPAD, HARDDRIVE, INSTALLATION, 600

Categories: Hardware , Installation

SDB-thinkpad_boot, Copyright SuSE Linux AG, Nürnberg, Germany - Version: 15. Mai 2002
SuSE Linux AG - Last generated: 15. Mai 2002 by sdb (sdb_gen 1.40.0)