Windows 7 was succesfully installed on the drive without a hitch. Posting from this OS now.
So far I've tried Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and 21.10, the latest Mint and the latest Fedora Core. None of these installers find my hard disk.
I have tried all the settings in the BIOS, and I've tried all the motherboard SATA ports.
The hard disk is not striped.
