[64 Studio 2.1] "Begin: Waiting for root file system" - Hang

Hi Guys, Firstly, this is my first post over here on 64Studio, being a bit of a lurker and currently using ubuntu studio. I am relatively new to the linux world and thought I might like to try out how linux would go at audio work. I thought I might chip in here to say that I experienced what may be a similar problem recently, I shall explain; In GraysonPeddie's post where, quote 'It doesn't matter before or after the installation of 64 Studio. It won't boot at all! Not even my DVD disc (Debian installer). This tells me that my BIOS can't find my BD-ROM and SATA hard drive.' So I take it you had this problem before the installation of 64Studio as well as after the installation? I understand you only have one hard drive, possibly with partitions for Windows Vista and another for 64Studio? I may have had similar setup as follows; dev/sda1 55MB fat16 dev/sda2 10GB ntfs DELL Recovery dev/sda2 240GB ntfs Microsoft Vista dev/sda4 48GB extended-| .....................................|__dev/sda5 46GB ext3 ubuntu LiveCD install .....................................|__dev/sda6 2GB linux-swap My drama; I downloaded 64Studio '64studio_2.1_amd64.iso' and also ubuntu studio alternate AMD64 iso. Burned both iso's to DVD successfully. All good thus far. Then setting my BIOS so that the system would boot initially from the CD/DVD drive Then when I rebooted with the 64Studio DVD in, it proceeded to load.......... It only got so far as where it displays the language selection, at which point I found that my system was locked up. The cap's lock key did not respond, nor did any other key sequence. Nothing but to hold the power button still shutdown. Then I tried ubuntu studio 64 DVD. Almost the same thing here. It also did not proceed. I tried a number of times without success. I tested the DVD for integrity check, all ok. Remembering here that my hard drive with it's current operating systems are in working order, so no problems with this at all. Then I searched and searched the various linux community forums and found that, yes, there sometimes can be problems with certain SATA configurations. At this point I wondered if I had one of those suspect systems, a relatively new DELL Dimension E520, Intel Core 2, ATI Radeon, 4 GB RAM, lots of HDD, blah blah blah. So, I thought there has to be a way to make this work. Maybe I thought a USB CD/DVD would work, but didn't have one handy. My BIOS was setup for RAID, (with one hard drive only, for performance boosting) and using AHCI. If I set the setting so as to make the drives non-raid, it warned me that doing so may make my existing OS's non-operational. I tried, and yes, nothing worked, no boot into Vista or ubuntu. I changed back to initial BIOS setting of having RAID enabled, and existing OS booted ok from hard drive. Remembering at this point, I still had my initial problem of not being able to boot the iso on the DVD unit. And yes, like you are saying Quentin, the BIOS was my problem here. I visited the DELL site and downloaded a more recent BIOS. I used the supplied program and reflashed my BIOS. After this, both DVD's worked first go, and have since tasted 64Studio and Ubuntu Studio 64. I was a happy chapy. :) I would highly recommend downloading a partition manager, Gparted or such to take a closer look at your partition setup. Also, be aware of how the flags are set for each partition. After that, I would look at your bootloader, grub or lilo, and how these are set up. Maybe post the contents here for Quentin or others to see? Presently I am continuing to use ubuntu studio 64 due to my sound card, as I don't thing I will be successful in getting it operational in 64Studio easily! Both Geo (other soundie on here) and I have been having some fun with our Creative X-Fi cards over in ubuntu land, but that is another story ;) I hope this may shed some useful information in helping you getting your system up and running. :)