Kubuntu 8.04.1 64-bit boots, but can't see hard drives - ?

[Objekt]

The Kubuntu 8.04.1 64 bit Live DVD boots on a system, but we can't install it on the system because the live OS doesn't see any hard drives. Here's the hardware:

ASUS M2R32-MVP motherboard
6 GB DDR2 800 MHz RAM (2x1 GB sticks, 2x 2 GB sticks, all with the same CAS latency and other timings)
Radeon x1950 PCI Express 1.0 video card
1x IDE Lite-On DVD-RW, master on the single IDE channel
1x Maxtor 40 GB IDE HDD, plugged in as SATA via PATA->SATA converter
1x 320 GB SATA 2.0 HDD
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ dual-core CPU

Under Windows, all the hard drives are visible and work fine. I don't know what BIOS setting could cause drives to be visible to windows, but invisible to Linux.

I don't mean the hard drives aren't mounting automatically, I mean it's as if they simply didn't exist. They are not shown in the Media browser or anywhere else. When we run the Install routine, there are no drives listed for partitioning and installation.

The weird thing is that there's an existing Fedora Core 9 install on the 40 GB IDE drive, and it will boot. I don't understand how the drive can boot another Linux just fine but be invisible (as is the other HDD) to a live version of Kubuntu.

What could be causing this, and how can it be fixed?

[CVPunk]

Re: Kubuntu 8.04.1 64-bit boots, but can't see hard drives - ?

what configuration do you have the HDD's set up? I am assuming Master/Slave.

have you tried unplugging the PATA->SATA converter and just using an IDE cable?

or, maybe try having just one of the HDD's plugged in without the other to see if it will recognize the drive by itself?

[Objekt]

Re: Kubuntu 8.04.1 64-bit boots, but can't see hard drives - ?

Yes, the optical drive is Master and the IDE HDD is Slave. This is pretty much the only way to do it, since the motherboard supplies only one IDE channel.

Haven't tried unplugging the SATA drive. We wanted to have it plugged in while installing so that Kubuntu would see the Windows boot volume on it. That way, it would set up GRUB for multi-OS boot automagically. Guess we'll have to do it the hard way.

There aren't any BIOS settings which appear relevant to the issue. BIOS is set to use the SATA drive in IDE compatibility mode, rather than AHCI. That is a nice feature, because it meant we didn't have to fuss with a RAID driver diskette when installing Windows.