[PLUG] Can't see second hard drive for Linux Mint install

[Jim Beckett]

Matt McKenzie wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Did you try looking under every "nook and cranny" in the BIOS?  In some
> cases, options for this kind of thing might not be in a place that is
> necessarily obvious.  It could be under some option for the hard drives, to
> use them in legacy IDE mode, SATA mode, or RAID mode, or something along
> those lines.
>
> Also agree with trying another distro live CD, see if they can see the 2nd
> drive.
>
> You might also want to try Ultimate Boot CD, and run a hd diagnostic on the
> 2nd drive.
>
> ----------
> Matt M.
> LinuxKnight
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 10:37 AM, David Kaplan <davek52 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> I've been trying to install Linux Mint 8 on a friends Dell Dimension 8400
>> desktop. It has a 250gb hdd. as sata 0 and the new 320gb hdd is set at sata
>> 1. The BIOS sees both hdds but the Mint installer only sees the first 250gb
>> hdd. Someone told me to turn off the raid setting but there is not way to
>> turn it off in the BIOS. The Mint Forum told me to run on the live CD:
>>
>> $ sudo apt-get remove dmraid
>>
>> sounded like a good idea, but after running it and logging back in to the
>> live CD nothing happened. The installer will only see the first 250gb hdd.
>>
>> Any other ideas?
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>>
>>     
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>   
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8400/en/index.htm

I just looked at the owners manual pdf file from the above link, and I 
think this is what you might need to do:

Disable RAID-Enabled Mode
1   Turn on (or restart) your computer.
2   When the blue DELLTM logo appears, press <F2> immediately.
3   Enter system setup.
4   Use the up- and down-arrow keys to highlight Drives, and press <Enter>.
5   Use the up- and down-arrow keys to highlight Drive Controller, and 
press <Enter>.
6   Use the left- and right-arrow keys to highlight Drive Controller 
RAID Autodetect/AHCI, (or possibly RAID Autodetect/ATA), press <Enter>, 
and then press <Esc>.
7   Use the left- and right-arrow keys to highlight Save/Exit, and press 
<Enter> to exit system setup and resume the boot process.

If not the owners manual pdf that I linked should help.

Good luck!