Ubuntu and GParted not seeming to recognize my hard drive when partitioning or installing.

I'd try using the Ubuntu alternate CD (not the desktop live CD) first by ticking the checkbox and downloading from here

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

Well, I gave this a try, and it seemed promising for a bit, however, once I selected my HDD and went to partition I got a message that said

 "Input/output error during read on /dev/sda
   ERROR!!!"

it gave me the choice to retry, ignore or go back (or cancel, don't really remember). Hitting retry only made the message disappear for a fraction of a second and pop up again. Hitting Ignore moved to the next message, which was the same as the first, then hitting ignore on the second one made another of the same message come up. After ignoring the third one it seemed to continue the installing process very quickly then went to a screen with the partitions (partition #1 and Partition #5) on it as if they were created, then I selected save partitions to disk which lead to a screen with a progress bar that went to 33% and gave me the "The ext3 filesystem creation in partition #1 of SCSI1 (0,0,0)(sda) failed." message again. There was an option to continue, if selected this would bring me back to the partition page where the whole process would be repeated.

Please reset your bios to failsafe options and retry...

Hope this helps

No luck with failsafe......as a correction to my last post after ignoring the 3 input/output errors and choosing to save partitions to the disk i get to a loading bar that goes to 33% and says "the ext filesystem creation in partition #1 of SCSI3 (0,0,0)(sda) failed." .....so its saying SCSI3 instead of SCSI1 as it does with the live CD. Not sure if any of that matters. Either way I'm still getting the same errors.

Could this possibly be a bad hard drive? I also tried installing Vista and got several freezes along with a "Windows cannot install required files. The file maybe corrupt or missing. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x80070570." message during or before installation each time. I tried this before coming to Ubuntu. I thought I just bought a bad vista disk, however if Ubuntu is having this much trouble with my hard drive maybe that could be it.....kind of "thinking out loud" with typing here but after this much trouble it seems feasible.

Using Ubuntu live cd first menu option please carefully test your RAM memory....

Hope this helps

oh yes, tested the RAM and even contacted Corsair to make absolutely sure my RAM and motherboard are 100% compatible. Everything, RAM wise, checks out, including timings and voltage on the BIOs. Took care of that about 3 days ago before even beginning my Ubuntu adventure.

Have you done this for an entire night using live install cd menu option...

And from my previous experience i found sometimes testmem can be passed on my bugged ram.

Please absolutely be sure you can pass the test now... you have reset bios.

Hope this helps

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=805738

Please also be sure you have a good Ubuntu install cd burned from a good (md5 verified iso image)

Below i drop my notes to install Ubuntu:

Some suggestions and tips and check steps to solve install issue...

- Minimum system requirements to install Ubuntu 8.04.1 https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements

Download the standard Ubuntu 8.04.1 32 bits iso image from here:
http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/8.04.1/ubuntu-8.04.1-desktop-i386.iso
or better using a torrent file:
http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/8.04.1/ubuntu-8.04.1-desktop-i386.iso.torrent

- Please check the md5sum of your downloaded Ubuntu .iso image file, here the https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM howto, and compare with http://releases.ubuntu.com/8.04.1/MD5SUMS

- Burn it on a cd rom, be sure to burn your cd at lower speed you can do usually 4x here an howto https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto

- Please also check the md5sum of your self burned cd. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM

- Boot your pc from self-burned cdrom, if it don't start from cd please modify your pc BIOS settings by accessing to it usually pressing CANC or F2 or other keys (check into your motherboard paper documentation or watch carefully the screen, usually there are tips to access BIOS, when you switch your computer on)

- then to be sure your ram is ok, boot from Ubuntu live cd main menu and at first showed menu, select the item "Memory test" to test your pc ram memory

- Here the steps to install Ubuntu 8.04.1 https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GraphicalInstall

- Watch this video that show howto install Ubuntu on a pc with Windows: http://screencasts.ubuntu.com/Installing_Ubuntu_with_Windows_Dual-Boot

- if something go wrong at startup of Ubuntu live installation when you see the first cd menu like this http://i18.tinypic.com/6tzzndc.jpg pressing F6 you can put useful startup kernel boot parameters as showed here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

Try to perform the "Memory test" and the "Check cd for defects" to be sure the cd is read without errors by the destination pc cdrom driver

- Booting from Ubuntu live install cd:
 * if you are in trouble with screen graphic user interface
   (usually the screen is black with a blinking cursor or screen out of range message):
- first try to dynamically change screen resolution please the press CTRL + ALT + "+" and/or CTRL + ALT + "-"
- Try to restart the graphic layer press CTRL + ALT + BACKSPACE
- Here the basic step required during install process http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-ubuntu-8.04-lts-hardy-heron

If you are still in trouble... please reboot your pc and starting with Ubuntu live cd please try to put some common Ubuntu kernel live cd options you can find the boot options howto here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

Remove the "splash" and "quiet" options to see more boot infos message and/or errors.
Then try some commons parameters by putting them one by one or together:
noacpi nolapic nodma all_generic_ide

If this don't work i suggest you to download and burn on a cd at lower speed you can do (4x), here an howto https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto, the Ubuntu alternate install cd iso image ( ubuntu-8.04.1-alternate-i386.iso ) you can download this cd from here: http://releases.ubuntu.com/8.04.1/

Sometimes is useful to change, if you have 40-pin IDE cable for the CDROM, to an 80-pin IDE cable.

If you are in trouble to download you can try to install and use a torrent client Deluge http://www.deluge-torrent.org/downloads.php to get your desired Ubuntu iso image http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/8.04.1/ please select a .torrent file

*** if you are installing in dual boot mode Windows + Ubuntu

Please make sure you Windows partition have no errors on it.

Booting in Windows force an a complete hard disk check.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265
Then reboot again in Windows and make a clean shutdown.
Be sure to boot in Windows twice and to get a clear Windows shutdown.

***

Always useful is the online Ubuntu doc https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/

Hope this helps

I am certain, I've tested more than once for hours and hours at a time. This is not the first time I reset the BIOs either.

Sadly this isn't the first time I've seen many of those tips, suggestions etc. I'm not Dual booting, and I should have mentioned I'm running a 64-bit system.

Have you already tried to install the Ubuntu 8.04 standard 32 release of Ubuntu on that pc...?

Hope this helps

Have you tried disabling the sata native support in bios ? maybe it has to do with that because i had the same problem with a 64 bit os.

Hope this helps

Just tried the 32-bit version with no luck, same with the sata support.

what about the MD5 ? check this : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuHashes

Try re downloading and re burning in low speed

SOLUTION at the end of explanation.

I was having the same problem with clean install of 8.04 for 64 bit. The BIOS recognized my CD & HDD, but the install was crashing. I downloaded the latest version of Ubuntu (Jaunty's Alpha2 release). I was able to "Try Ubuntu without making any changes to your system" and "Check Memory" and "Install Now" would initiate. If I chose to "Install Now," then it would ask for my time zone and keyboard layout, etc. When it got to the partition editor, it was totally blank and everything was greyed out.

THE FIX:
Use an IDE HDD with jumpers selecting master and make your CD drive the slave. I was able to partition that HDD and work from there.

I had a similar problem of my hard drives not being found on my laptop.

I fixed this by typing this in a terminal before starting the installation:

modprobe ide-generic

fixed the viewing of the hard drives for me.