Disk Utility won't read partition table

[quadomatic]

I set up a USB stick to install Snow Leopard on my desktop.

 

When I boot into the installer and go to the Disk Utility to look at my drive, it can't seem to read the partition map and table. It seems to think my drive is unformatted. About the drive, it says (this isn't everything, I just picked more relevant bits):

 

Connection Bus: SATA

Connection Type: External

Partition Map Scheme: Unformatted

 

In System Profiler, here's what it says about the SATA controller:

 

Vendor: Unknown

Product: AHCI Standard Controller

Speed: 3 Gigabit

Description: AHCI Version 1.10 Supported

 

It seems to get all the information about the drive itself alright, except for the information about the partition table and partition map. Is it because my computer's AHCI controller isn't working properly? My DVD burner (also SATA) seems to be recognized just fine though...

 

Here's my computer's specs:

 

AMD Phenom X4 FX-5000 (effectively a Phenom II X4 945; unlocked 2 cores on a rebranded X2 5000)

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-US2H, 780G, SB700

ATI HD5750 1GB

6GB Ram

 

I took the preboot.dmg (Extensions, kernel, etc.) from an [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] disc made using the xnu legacy kernel. I also grabbed the kexts included with it. I used Chameleon RC5 r700 to make the USB stick bootable (r700 kabyl branch so that my HD5750 would work)

 

After getting a kernel panic from the IOATAFamily.kext, I deleted it from the Snow Leopard Installer, and removed a bunch of Extra kexts, repaired permissions and rebuilt the cache (hoping to reduce panics from nonessential kexts). Now, the following kexts are in my /Extra/Extensions folder:

 

AHCIPortInjector.kext

AppleAHCIPort.kext

AppleBCM5701Ethernet.kext

AppleRTL8139Ethernet.kext

AppleRTL8169Ethernet.kext

AppleUSBCDC.kext

AppleUSBCDCACMControl.kext

AppleUSBCDCACMData.kext

AppleUSBCDCDMM.kext

AppleUSBCDCECMControl.kext

AppleUSBCDCECMData.kext

AppleUSBCDCEEM.kext

AppleUSBCDCWCM.kext

AppleUSBEHCI.kext

AppleUSBEthernet.kext

AppleUSBGigEthernet.kext

AppleUSBHub.kext

AppleUSBMergeNub.kext

AppleUSBOHCI.kext

AppleUSBOpticalMouse.kext

AppleUSBUHCI.kext

AppleUSBVideoSupport.kext

AppleVIAATA.kext

AppleYukon2.kext

AtherosL1cEthernet.kext

ElliottForceLegacyRTC.kext

EvOreboot.kext

FakeSMC.kext

IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext

IONetworkingFamily.kext

IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily.kext

IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice.kext

IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice.kext

IOSCSIReducedBlockCommandsDevice.kext

IOStorageFamily.kext

IOUSBCompositeDriver.kext

IOUSBFamily.kext

IOUSBHIDDriver.kext

IOUSBHIDDriverSafeBoot.kext

IOUSBMassStorageClass.kext

IOUSBUserClient.kext

JMicron36xATA.kext

JMicron36xSATA.kext

NullCPUPowerManagement.kext

nvenet.kext

SCSITaskUserClient.kext

 

The installer booted successfully, but now it won't read the partition information from the hard drive. I tried using an AppleAHCIPort.kext from a kextcache meant for SB700 chipsets, but it didn't fix the problem.

 

Any ideas?

 

Update: I think I figured out what could be the problem...I think it's because I encrypted my system with TrueCrypt. I'm decrypting my system, and I'll see if it works then...