I am trying to install ubuntu on my system and it hangs just after network setup. This is as it is trying to configure the hard disk. I have switched to try to install SUSE and this gives me more information. It actually tells me it cannot find any hard drives in the system. Looking in the BIOS I have noticed my hard disk is attached to the third IDE primary controller and the first IDE controller is empty. I thought I would just put the disk on the first controller; but when I opened the case I found that the first cable connection is different to the cable on my disk. It looks like my IDE controllers 1 & 2 are large ribbons (DVD on 2nd) and 3 & 4 are small ribbons, more like cables actually. I think this is SATA; would that sound right? How can I install ubuntu with that type of setup?
Maybe your hard drives are too new even for Ubuntu... Did you try Fedora? Or maybe the Knoppix Live-CD, it always contains the newest drivers.