Boot up problem

[Guest smithy]

hai..

I got the installtion to work and installed mandrake sucecssfully but then when it says reboot to start linux (or what ever) i reboot and it says Please insert media or reboot and select proper boot device.. now i checked and made sure i was booting from hdd but yeah still that msg..

any help would be great thanks

[scarecrow]

Where did you install LILO?

It should be installed at the MBR (likely at /dev/hda) if no other OS or third party OS loader is present.

[Ixthusdan]

Specs, please. And please describe what you mean when you say it installed successfully.

[Guest smithy]

my specs are amd 64 +300

512ram

9800pro

k8vse deluxe

im gonna reinstall it.

im not sure about boot device. should i use /dev/hdd, /dev/sda, /dev/hdd1, /dev/hdd5. and what number should i type in 'delay before booting default image' and should i check any of the following boxes 'enable ACPI', force no apic, force no local apic.

thanks.

[Ixthusdan]

What devices do you have? sata drive? ide crom? ide drive? scsi drive?

[Guest smithy]

i am installing onto a 13 gig ide..

ive left the boot loader stuff default .. still not working :/

[Ixthusdan]

OK. If you are installing just linux, you should be looking at hda1, hda2, hda3, etc, for partitions. If an sda is showing up, that might be an sata drive rather than a simple udma or ata drive. sata drives can show up as sda1, sda2, etc.

 

If you have another os on the drive, that os will be on hda1, and linux would pick up on hda3, hda4, hda5, etc, because it would create a primary partition, hda2, and extended partitions for the installation. A boot loader should be installed into the mbr of the main drive, or hda, (no number). Perhaps sda, if the drive is an sata drive.

 

I am trying to give you information with little input from you! I think whatever is happening is a simple error and not terminal. :lol:

[Guest smithy]

thanks.

also waht should i format my hdd as? theres like all these differnt things.

what should i use for swap partition? and what should i use for linux parition? (linux native, fxt3 or whatever it is etc etc etc)

and should my swap be 512? cause i have 512 ram

thanks :D

[AussieJohn]

A swap partition of about 500mbs is quite ok. A swap has its own format so you don't not have to worry about that aspect.

For your other Mandriva partitions select ext3 and not native.

 

When the install asks where to install the bootloader, just select the default which is to MBR.

The instal will have detected where the MBR is, the first Hard Drive in the chain of drives whether cd or hdd or scd.

 

John.

[Ixthusdan]

Upon looking at your board, you have sata, udma, and raid capabilities. How are you currently configured? Is raid turned on? How many hard drives do you have ?