<p>The newer dells have ATA mode, and two others, one standard, and one which is a custom intel raid mode. I would start by checking the controller mode in bios.</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Jul 15, 2011 9:02 PM, "Dow Hurst" <<a href="mailto:dphurst@uncg.edu">dphurst@uncg.edu</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution">> Thanks in advance for your help!<br>> <br>> The latest G4L, Ghost for Linux, refuses to access the hard drive on a Dell<br>
> E6410 laptop. The error message is "hdparm: ioctl 0x304 failed:<br>> inappropriate ioctl for device", then "hdparm: HDIO_GET_IDENTITY:<br>> inappropriate ioctl for device".<br>> <br>> The user selected the latest stable kernel from the g4l boot menu, selected<br>
> option 1 which is g4l, then selected raw mode, and then click and clone.<br>> When she selected the target /dev/sda was when the error message came back.<br>> I double checked with her that she had selected the bx38.4 2.6.38.4 april 21<br>
> 2011 kernel. Somehow I think I'm missing something simple here that<br>> pertains to the Dell controller or drive. I dimly remember running into<br>> some problem with the disk controller a year ago when first installing<br>
> Ubuntu over the Vista Home that had to do with the controller and solid<br>> state disk support. There is a regular 500Gb SATA drive in the laptop that<br>> the bios is warning on boot has "imminent disk failure" problems. We are<br>
> running Dell Diagnostics on the drive now. I'm just stumped by the G4L<br>> error message. Her fdisk output that she sent me also looks like this:<br>> <br>> Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes<br>
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders<br>> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes<br>> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes<br>> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes<br>
> Disk identifier: 0x0005496a<br>> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System<br>> /dev/sda1 * 1 13 96256 83 Linux<br>> Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.<br>
> /dev/sda2 13 60802 488288257 5 Extended<br>> /dev/sda5 13 1958 15624192 82 Linux swap / Solaris<br>> /dev/sda6 1958 4389 19529728 83 Linux<br>
> /dev/sda7 4389 60802 453132288 83 Linux<br>> <br>> I would appreciate any advice on how to get g4l to read /dev/sda.<br>> <br>> Best wishes,<br>> Dow<br></div>