I don't know if this is the exact same issue but I managed to "fix" Ubuntu 8.04 on my Dell Inspiron 530 by first switching to RAID, so I could boot into Ubuntu, then forcing the SATA driver to load before USB driver by following the instructions at this site:
I don't know if this is the exact same issue but I managed to "fix" Ubuntu 8.04 on my Dell Inspiron 530 by first switching to RAID, so I could boot into Ubuntu, then forcing the SATA driver to load before USB driver by following the instructions at this site:
http:// linux.dell. com/wiki/ index.php/ Ubuntu_ 7.04/Issues/ USB-SATA_ race_condition_ causes_ hang
Although it's for 7.04 it worked for me on 8.04.