[CentOS] CentOS 6.4 installation fails with message "No usable disks have been found"

Sun Apr 6 13:43:01 UTC 2014
David Both <dboth at millennium-technology.com>

Specialized storage devices are NAS or other remote storage array types of 
devices. So that is not a valid option on your stand-alone system. It looks like 
your hard drives are visible to the Linux Anaconda installer, but you may want 
to check BIOS configuration and verify that they are configured correctly there. 
Unplug the power connectors to the drives and reseat them, and data cables from 
both ends and reseat those as well. Ensure that the jumpers on these parallel 
ATA drives aer set soi one is "Master" and one is "Slave." Other options may 
work, but also may not. The "CS" option is to be avoided. Be certain that the 
Master is the drive you want to be /dev/sda and the Slave will be /dev/sdb.

Based on my experience the jumpers on the hard drives are the most likely cause 
of this problem.

AFAIK, there are no "special" steps to install CentOS on any particular local 
hard drive. So long as BIOS and jumpers are correct, it should "just install."




On 04/06/2014 09:25 AM, Meikel wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I inherited a very old computer (I guess about 8 years old) which I'd
> like to use for some training on CentOS. I downloaded images for CentOS
> 6.4 i386 (DVD 1 and 2) and burned them onto discs. After inserting DVD 1
> into drive and booting, on the "Welcome to CentOS 6.4!" screen I select
> "Install or upgrade an existing system". I then skip the media test and
> start the installation. Then I get a graphical installer where I choose
> english language and U.S. international keyboard layout.
>
> Then I'm questioned about "What type of devices will your installation
> involve"? where I select "Basic Storage Devices" and then proceed. I get
> a dialog "Examining devices" with the message "Examining storage devices".
>
> After a short while a dialog "No disks found" appears displaying the
> message "No usable disks have been found". I then go back and choose
> "Specialized Storage Devices" but I then get the same result (no devices
> are found).
>
> Just to be sure that there are disks available and hardware works I
> installed a current Debian which works fine. From the BIOS and from
> Debian shell command "dmesg | grep -i ata" I see that there are two
> "Maxtor 6Y120L0" installed. Find output of "dmsg" below that email.
>
> Is it possible and what steps are necessary to install CentOS 6.4 on
> that "Maxtor 6Y120L0" hard disks?
>
> Regards,
>
> Meikel
>
> ---
>
>
>
> Output of "dmesg | grep -i ata"
>
> [    1.690559] pata_via 0000:00:11.1: version 0.3.4
> [    1.690591] pata_via 0000:00:11.1: can't derive routing for PCI INT A
> [    1.693019] scsi0 : pata_via
> [    1.693396] scsi1 : pata_via
> [    1.694434] ata1: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0xa800
> irq 14
> [    1.694442] ata2: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0xa808
> irq 15
> [    1.864541] ata1.00: ATA-7: Maxtor 6Y120L0, YAR41BW0, max UDMA/133
> [    1.864549] ata1.00: 240121728 sectors, multi 16: LBA
> [    1.864737] ata1.01: ATA-7: Maxtor 6Y120L0, YAR41BW0, max UDMA/133
> [    1.864744] ata1.01: 240121728 sectors, multi 16: LBA
> [    1.880389] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
> [    1.896439] ata1.01: configured for UDMA/133
> [    1.896738] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      Maxtor 6Y120L0
> YAR4 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
> [    1.897477] scsi 0:0:1:0: Direct-Access     ATA      Maxtor 6Y120L0
> YAR4 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
> [    2.068361] ata2.00: ATAPI: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4167B, DL11, max UDMA/33
> [    2.068375] ata2.01: ATAPI: CD-956E/AKV, A99, max UDMA/33
> [    2.084228] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/33
> [    2.100283] ata2.01: configured for UDMA/33
>
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>
> -- 
>
>
> *********************************************************
> David P. Both, RHCE
> Millennium Technology Consulting LLC
> 919-389-8678
>
> dboth at millennium-technology.com
>
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