Have you changed anything in the BIOS to get Linux working ("PNP OS" for example)?
Wow- how strange. Sounds like a super bad luck kind of day for you. My only other guesses- you're not using the same ribbon cable each time you put the drives into another machine are you? All pins on your drive connectors are straight and you're putting the cables on the right way? Are you putting them on as primary master/slave or secondary master/slave or how exactly?
As far as Mandrake goes- it's a great way to get started in Linux. Easy to install and you can use rpm's to get new software.
Have you changed anything in the BIOS to get Linux working ("PNP OS" for example)?
Ive tried all Ide ribbons i.e 33 and 66s In all computers In all variations.
Tried all combinations of primary / secondary master slave etc.
Also all BIOS settings.
I did wonder If It was a BIOS thing as It Is old.
I started to have problems with the second cdrom (should have told you this before) after I typed eject /dev/hdd In console as root, to see if cdrom was working.
One other thing although It does not seem to have made any diff. Ive read you should not, but I have loaded LILO In MBR. Thanks.
That wouldn't make any difference. Where did you read that you shouldn't install it to your MBR? Must've been a windows user.Originally Posted by knap
You have to have a boot loader although it doesn't necessarily need to be LILO.

HP PROLIANT MICROSERVER GEN8 E3-1220LV2 @ 2.30GHz, 8GB RAM, NO HDD/OS
$164.97
$280.00
Dual Xeon E5-2698 Server-Supermicro X10DRL-i - Noctua SilverStone RM41-506
$449.99
Super Micro 113M-3 Server Intel Xeon 5Tb HDD used great condition
$70.00
HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen 10 - Opteron x3421 - 16GB DDR4 - 120GB SATA SSD
$350.00
HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus Xeon E-2224 3.4GHz 16GB RAM 2TB HDD NO OS
$949.99
HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 Xeon E3-1265L v2 16GB ECC RAM 4-Bay NAS, NO Drives
$300.00
Supermicro 1027GR-TSF 1U Rackmount Server 2x Xeon 2.3GHz 128GB DDR3
$219.99
Supermicro 721-2 Mini Tower Black Computer Server NO Hdd
$375.00
BOXX B157552 SuperMicro X10DRT-L 2x Intel 2630V4 NO RAM & SSD Server
$160.99