F14 install freezes due to disk problems

[Piscium]

On 14 May 2011 21:18, Lewis NH2 <lew.nh2 at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Good Evening,
>
> I am trying to install F14 on my box... Without any success so far.
>
> The problem: when it comes to write the partitioning scheme to the
> disk, the system freezes.
> This occurs with the following CD images:
> - Fedora 14 LXDE live image. Installation using "Install to Disk" script.
> - Fedora 14, regular i386 image
> - Fedora 15 (beta) LXDE live image
>
> I used the F14 Live CD and performed additional tests. In particular,
> I tried to partition manually /dev/sdb (the disk where I want to
> install F14) using fdisk from the shell:
> - everything is OK until I execute the fdisk's 'w' command.
> - fdisk then hangs for about 10-15 seconds. The system is still
> working (I can change to another tty, have a shell etc.).
> - after those 15s have elapsed, the system freezes (CapsLock doesn't
> react anymore). At this point, I have no other option but power off
> the machine.

I always do the partitioning _before_ installing a new OS. So I boot
off a partitioning ISO on a USB stick (my current favourite being
PartedMagic), then use Gparted and/or Parted for partitioning,
relabeling, moving stuff around as needed, then when all is said and
done reboot to the OS installation ISO and choose the custom partition
option.

The rationale for the above is that there is a greater likelihood of
partitioning related bugs in installation programs (such as Anaconda)
then in Gparted/parted when used from a partitioning CD which gets a
lot of testing by people doing partitioning. Moreover partitioning is
a risky business so I prefer to give my full attention to it in a
separate step, as opposed to partial attention when doing the install.