nerdzyboy Posted November 30, 2002 Report Share Posted November 30, 2002 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) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalee Posted November 30, 2002 Report Share Posted November 30, 2002 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted November 30, 2002 Report Share Posted November 30, 2002 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdzyboy Posted November 30, 2002 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2002 This pc was running in windows 2K... Now I want to make it linux only Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted November 30, 2002 Report Share Posted November 30, 2002 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted November 30, 2002 Report Share Posted November 30, 2002 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdzyboy Posted November 30, 2002 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2002 I tried to reformat all my hard drive with fdisk but it told me that there were no hd in my computer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted November 30, 2002 Report Share Posted November 30, 2002 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdzyboy Posted November 30, 2002 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2002 My hd is showing up in the bios (everything seems normal) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted November 30, 2002 Report Share Posted November 30, 2002 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!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdzyboy Posted November 30, 2002 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2002 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... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted November 30, 2002 Report Share Posted November 30, 2002 Last resort: can you install windows? :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted November 30, 2002 Report Share Posted November 30, 2002 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted November 30, 2002 Report Share Posted November 30, 2002 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted December 1, 2002 Report Share Posted December 1, 2002 Quantum=maxtor :) If I knew where, I could upload the floppy so that it could be downloaded by others! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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