Fedora won't boot successfully after installation

[Stefan Frank]

Jeff Vian wrote:
> 
> 

>>>
>>> Repartition the drive ---  force it to do that.
>>>
>>

> 
> 
> check your bios settings for the hard drive support.
> Confirm the drive parameters are correct, the controller is set 
> correctly, and possibly the s.m.a.r.t. setting for the hard drive.   
> Also check to see if lba is enabled or not.  Sometimes things that work 
> perfectly (or  faults are munged/ hidden) will not work under linux.
> 
> Using fdisk at the command line allows you to set/display the partition 
> type.  83 for default linux,  82 for swap.  Is that set correctly for 
> the filesystem you are using?
> 
> If you boot to knoppix, can you see the drive correctly? and can you 
> mount it on another running system (knoppix works for this)?
> What size drive is it.?  mke2fs allows you to do a bad block check 
> during format, as does e2fsck.  Try that as well.
> 
> 

As far as i can see, the bios (AMIBIOS 07/12/2001) settings are ok, 
using HD autodetect. The controller is set to support both IDE ports. 
S.M.A.R.T. enabled/disabled doesn't make a different behavior. LBA is 
enabled.

The partition types are ok. I checked for bad blocks - nothing. The 
drive size is 30G, but i use a 100M boot partition, which is far below 
the 1024 cylinder limit.

Under the linux rescue system from the installation CDs i downloaded, i 
can create the partitions, make the ext2 filesystems, label them (/boot, 
/), check them with e2fsck, and mount them. Everything looks fine to me. 
When i simply reboot into the rescue system and don't do anything else, 
and then run e2fsck, i get the message

	invalid argument while trying to open <device>
	The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct 		ext2 
file system

The same when i try any of the superblock backups. I then can't mount 
these partitions any more (invalid argument). The partition table, 
however, is readable for fdisk, and looks the same.

I'm trying to get a diagnostic tool from the hd manufactorer, and i'll 
download knoppix for a try. The HD, by the way, is a Samsung SV 3063H.

I find that pretty strange.

Thanks for your help