Originally Posted by ratvn

If yours is SB600 or later, one of those two SATA modes should work. It can't be the same if there are two options.

Try the AHCI again first, with boot options:

-x -v busratio=20 and/or cpus=1

The install is still detecting my hdd in the system profiler, but I am not able to partition it. I have included pics. (Sorry, they're kinda big )

Check in hardware info instead, if it could recognize your SATA controller and southbridge chipsets. Yours could be either ATI SB or NV nForce MCP (probably nForce to give that much trouble).
Also is your BIOS the latest version?

Originally Posted by ratvn

Check in hardware info instead, if it could recognize your SATA controller and southbridge chipsets. Yours could be either ATI SB or NV nForce MCP (probably nForce to give that much trouble).
Also is your BIOS the latest version?

The bios is the latest version (that I could find). I'm still not sure what the SB is, but I was able to get the HDD detected. The only problem is; no matter what type of partition table I use (mac, GPT), and what file system I use (HFS+, FAT32, unformatted), the format tool in the iDeneb install always fails with something along the lines of this:
Format failed:
Device not configured

Any ideas?

Originally Posted by XxQuinnzoxX

The bios is the latest version (that I could find). I'm still not sure what the SB is, but I was able to get the HDD detected.
Format failed:
Device not configured

Any ideas?

Any ideas? You don't need another one to worry about yet, beside the one I already gave you: your southbridge chipsets SATA controller driver/kext problem with OSX installer. As your hdd is fine, and your SATA also in Windows, isn't it?

Why don't you download CPU-Z in windows and check your chipsets.

And OSX Disk Utility (not just iDeneb) did not lie to you when it has trouble detecting your hdd as well as formatting it. Even if you can get OSX installed, system won't be stable due to hdd read/write errors.

Originally Posted by ratvn

Any ideas? You don't need another one to worry about yet, beside the one I already gave you: your southbridge chipsets SATA controller driver/kext problem with OSX installer. As your hdd is fine, and your SATA also in Windows, isn't it?

Why don't you download CPU-Z in windows and check your chipsets.

And OSX Disk Utility (not just iDeneb) did not lie to you when it has trouble detecting your hdd as well as formatting it. Even if you can get OSX installed, system won't be stable due to hdd read/write errors.

MB Brand : eMachines
MB Model : HM50-YK
NB : ATI RS690/RS690M rev 00
SB : ATI SB600 rev 00
Is that the info that we need?
Also, as far as I know, the HDD is fine. It worked fine to install knoppix a week or so ago.

Originally Posted by XxQuinnzoxX

MB Brand : eMachines
MB Model : HM50-YK
NB : ATI RS690/RS690M rev 00
SB : ATI SB600 rev 00
Is that the info that we need?
Also, as far as I know, the HDD is fine. It worked fine to install knoppix a week or so ago.

Yes, that is the info, which should be in the first place.
Your southbridge SATA controller is a part of that SB600 chipsets, which should be fully SATA AHCI supported (which is what OSX uses).
IDeneb 1.6 has driver/kext for full SB600 (as in case of desktop BIOS), but yours is laptop version which is more limited. Notice that it is rev 00, so there may be an updated BIOS version which would make it fully compatible.
OSX would need to be installed with SATA AHCI mode fully supported. So, you should look into BIOS update to solve your issue, as there are other methods but mostly feasible/reliable with desktop hardware only.

Originally Posted by ratvn

Yes, that is the info, which should be in the first place.
Your southbridge SATA controller is a part of that SB600 chipsets, which should be fully SATA AHCI supported (which is what OSX uses).
IDeneb 1.6 has driver/kext for full SB600 (as in case of desktop BIOS), but yours is laptop version which is more limited. Notice that it is rev 00, so there may be an updated BIOS version which would make it fully compatible.
OSX would need to be installed with SATA AHCI mode fully supported. So, you should look into BIOS update to solve your issue, as there are other methods but mostly feasible/reliable with desktop hardware only.

I'm sorry to have been such a pain, thank you for sticking with me on this one. I was able to find a bios update, I'll edit this post when I apply it

Okay, the updated firmware did nothing. I'm going to try iPC 10.5.6 (PPF5) when it finishes downloading.

IPC PPF5 or 6 has more drivers than iDeneb, but I did not mention because you insisted on using iDeneb 1.6 as your friend was using.
You also could ask your friend what BIOS version his/her laptop has.