Problem partitioning during install [solved]

[mystified]

I'm trying to install Mandriva on a new laptop. For some reason it has two hard drives. I'm not sure what's on what so I want to let Mandriva automaticalaly install but I'm caught in a loop. It asks me if I want to install using extra space on Windows partition, I say yes, then it takes me right back to the original partition window. I'd chose advance and do it myself but I'm not sure if I'd be wiping something out that I need. Any advice?

[ffi]

Switch off one drive in the bios. I had a similar problem with 2006.0 when one of my partitions had an invalid mft on it on a NTFS partition....

[ianw1974]

You could boot rescue mode, and mount each partition independantly, and then have a look in each one to figure out what is what and go from there.

 

I normally use custom, resize Windows if it's taking the whole disk, and then use the free space I've just created to put Mandriva in.

[mystified]

It's not formatted as ntfs, it's fat 32. I tried auto-allocate and it told me there wasn't enough space. But the two drives equal 40 gbs so there has to be plenty of space. And in bios they are seen as one harddrive, not as two so I can't do anything about that. I normally custom partition but I don't see why this computer has two harddrives instead of one and if anything important is on the second hard drive.

 

ian, I'm not sure how to do this. I didn't see anything in rescue mode for this. (sorry, I haven't used Mandriva in ages)

[ffi]

You could also try making a new partition in windows with pq magic or acronis disktools, if there´s still a working windows install

[mystified]

Yes, I haven't touched the windows install yet. I see neither of those programs are free. Any alternatives?

[tyme]

gparted livecd is useful ;)

 

personally, I would wipe the drive completely. You can get any drivers you need online for the Windows side, and there's going to be a lot of crap on the default windows install (but there by the manufacturer) that you probably don't need/want.

[Gowator]

I agree with tyme... also does it really have 2 hard drives or is it doing some trickery? I mean 40GB drives are available but laptop drives are expensive be it 20GB or 40GB and a 40 is much cheaper than two 40's?

 

As ianw says, I'd boot with a live CD and check out the drives anyway... you might be able to just backup the stuff on the '2nd' one to the one with the wondows install anyway! Plus you will see how they are allocated with gparted or qtparted ...

[scarecrow]

I also find hard to believe that there's a laptop with TWO hard drives... please recheck.

[tyme]

she meant partitions ;) (and i believe there are actually 3)

[ianw1974]

If you're sure the partitions are all fat32, then you can do this in rescue mode at prompt.

 

First make a few directories to mount them:

 

mkdir /mnt/part1
mkdir /mnt/part2
mkdir /mnt/part3

 

and so on for each partition, then mount using:

 

mount /dev/hdax -t vfat /mnt/part1

 

as an example, and then go from there. Substitute vfat with ntfs if ntfs partitions are present.

[ianw1974]

Also, another command you can use:

 

fdisk -l

 

that's an "L" but lowercase. This will list all the disks in your system that are recognised, and will be a good way to find out if it's actually showing two disks, or whether something is a little weird in it's setup. It will also show the partitions on the disks too. All from the command prompt when booting rescue mode.

[mystified]

Well what I wound up doing was using diskdrake to create all my partitions. Then I tried to install XP Pro which I have a copy of. That wound up in an endless loop so I used my restore cds to restore XP. Took two tries before it succeeded! Then I installed Mandriva and except for wireless in Mandriva everything is working. But that's another story that I posted in networking.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions!

 

Much appreciated

 

mysti