I wanted to install Mandrake (9) on my computer...
When I started the computer with the first installation disk in it, it froze when looking at the type of partitoin on my hard drive (before the installation began)

I want to know how I could make it work...

By the way my hard drive is a Quantum fireball and he's been formatted over and over again (from fat32 to NTFS to Linux Native)

Hi,

Just a guess but, if you are using downloaded discs, I'd suspect a bad burn. Otherwise, I'd re-fdisk the drive. And run some close checks on the drive.

dalee

What is the goal? Linux only? Fat32, and linux?, fat32, ntfs, and linux?
What's the current setup?
Are you using PM or some other partition tool?

Linux can be picky if all it sees/ or sometimes if it sees a ntfs partition. If you're using PM, are you doing ext2, or ext3? Because ext2 can be a major headache.

Did you check the md5sum of the iso's? Even if they were ok, you can still have a bad burn. Reburn the cd's.

This pc was running in windows 2K...

Now I want to make it linux only

Ok, so you've been formatting the entire hd for ext2, or3? Have you been using a bootloader like BTMagic? Have you booted to dos and
fdisk /mbr

If you formatted in ntfs, use windows fdisk to repartition your drive into one fat32 partition. Then, Mandrake will install and setup the linux partitions. Remember, when you partition the drive, you will loose all data.
Even if you did not format ntfs (it sounds like you did) something is majorly wrong with your tables, so I would delete all partitions and reformat.

I tried to reformat all my hard drive with fdisk but it told me that there were no hd in my computer...

Is your hd showing up in the bios at boot? fdisk reads the bios for hardware, but if the partition tables are messed up, then it may show no partitions on an existing drive. If the drive does not show up, then w2k should not be booting either. Remember, i'm talking win fdisk, not linux fdisk.

My hd is showing up in the bios (everything seems normal)

OK, I'm lost on the status of the computer. Could you tell me what the current state is of the computer you are trying to load linux. Is w2k functional? Is it trying to boot linux? Is it scrambling your eggs for breakfast? (well, it might be!)

Ok The computer was running win2k (NTFS partition).
I formated my computer a couple of days ago...
Now, nothing can be done with my hard drive (but it shows in the bios)
There is currently no partitions on the hd (deleted all of them) and I can't make new ones because fdisk tells me that there is no hd...

Last resort: can you install windows? :(

Also, go to maxtor.com and download the maxblast plus utility. Reinstall with this utility; it will do a lowlevel format to correct the cludged partition table. After that, linux should handle it just fine.

I'm assuming the quantum is a maxtor? If it's not it won't work...only works on maxtor hd's. It's great though, a low level format enabled me to get rid of winMe and put win98 on my maxtor. Should do the trick.

Quantum=maxtor
If I knew where, I could upload the floppy so that it could be downloaded by others!

Well, I got it with my hd, but later downloaded a new version from maxtor. Do they not have it on the site anymore? It was called Max Blast.

Yes, I checked before I suggested the download, but I was thinking it would be easier to have a sight related to the board where we could say " go to downloads and get this file." I have seen several threads concerning ntfs where I believe Mandrake corrupted the partition table and nothing but low level format will correct the problem.

Ahh..I see...good idea!

Thanks everyone...
I'm gonna try max blast...