Okay so I have a question about Extensions.mkext
 

Does the Extensions.mkext just get OSX86 to boot up or does it have drivers in it to?

I'm wondering if I need to add a .kext into my Extensions file to get rid of my

"Disk Erase failed: Input/output error"

because erasing my IDE hardrive before my install works but it doesn't work on my SATA hardrive.

I know I've posted a thread about this before but I'm trying to narrow it down to find the problem.

extension.mkext is just a cache of kexts. So basically all the files used to boot osx on your machine get put in 1 file which it will load each time unless you delete it or boot with -f this forces it to check which files it needs to load to work on your system and will rebuild the mkext

Wait. If I boot with -f then it will automatically rebuild my .mkext for me??

damn I can't figure out the problem and I don't have any money or another SATA hardrive >_<

The only definite way to force the cache to be rebuilt which I have seen documented on apple is the touch command. Though deleting it will obviously do the same. I have used the -f flag in the past and it seems to work but I never saw it documented on the site. I have adopted a redundancy approach as it should 100% ensure the cache is rebuilt. I use both the touch command, removing of the actual cache file and the -f boot-flag.
Just as lawless mentioned the -f boot-flag will force OSX to pull kexts from the Extensions folder and not the cache file. There is also a -F (note the caps) boot-flag which forces OSX to ignore the com.apple.boot.plist which contains boot preferences. Though if you cant even boot I doubt it will matter.

Thank you both for all the info on .mkexts

I have another question. What file or part of OSX would have to do with hardrives (or drivers)

Like do I need certain drivers to be present in my install disk to get it to be able to erase a (SATA) hardrive?

just your chipset kexts (and a rebuilt .mkext if you don't want to run -f all the time)

are the chipset kexts inside of the .mkext??

and should I just use google to find my chipset kexts?

also when you say "chipset" your talking about my cpu right??

-Once again thank you guys for all your help

the chipset is the set of chips control your motherboard. But for these purposes we are only really interested in the ones that control the ide/sata interface. Have a look at some peoples signatures they will state what chipset they have got

how do I know which chipset I have?

Hi lanceomni, sorry to bother you about this but do you think the nForceLAN.kext you used could work for my LAN board? Please see my hardware report attached, thx in advance for your reply, greetings from Italy!