Run "fdisk -l" (lowercase L).

Please run "lspci" and paste the output to these forums. I just want to see what chipset your are running and verify my theory that you have hardware that XP cannot access.

Hi, maybe I'm misunderstanding, but as far as I know the XP installer gives you the option to delete and re-format partitions. Why don't you just do that? It's better to install Windows before installing Linux anyway.

I have the feeling that this is what you're after:

To Nylex and syg00
[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1549f232

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 25 200781 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 26 60801 488183220 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/dm-0: 4932 MB, 4932501504 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 599 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-1: 2080 MB, 2080374784 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 252 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x30307800

Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table
[root@localhost ~]#

This looks ok to me, I have only the one operating system in (Linux) and I believe these values reflect this if I understand it correctly.

To David1357
[root@localhost ~]# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82G33/G31/P35 Express DRAM Controller (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82G33/G31/P35 Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 02)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 02)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 02)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 92)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801IR (ICH9R) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801IR/IO/IH (ICH9R/DO/DH) 4 port SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) 2 port SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
01:05.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Agere Systems FW323 (rev 70)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0422 (rev a1)
[root@localhost ~]#

So which chipset is it you need to check and is it XP compatible?

As I suspected, there is no free (as in unallocated) space on the drive.
And LVM just makes it much harder to organise things so the XP installer will go ahead and "work".

If it were me, I'd save any data I need, and trash the lot. Then install XP, but leave some of the disk (say 20 Gig or so) unallocated for a Linux install later.
Let us know if you want to know how - or look for my earlier post in another thread for similar.

Just 20GB for the main OS! Come on now. How about 50/50 at least.

paulnwt

If you look at the output of fdisk at the usage line you will see [-l] that means 'list' So if you you should get a list of the partitions on your system. That will tell you if you have any free space.

If you look through your menus you may find a partition program of some kind you could look at to get a feel for Qt-parted before you actually change your partitions. Just be sure to back out with out saving your changes. The live-Qt-parted is really cool and simple to use.

Hi,
Thanks all,
I'm going to try and trash the lot and start again, hopefully XP will install once I have some free space. I'll use the GParted live cd download I saved.
I'll create a 100GB partition and reserve this for Linux.

To syg00,
I'll probably need your advice as I attempt to do this. I have a laptop if anything goes wrong, so I'll still be able to get to this forum. I'll get back to you soon.

Regards
paul

You have an Intel ICH9 chipset that is almost certainly in AHCI mode (you can check this in your BIOS). Windows XP does not know how to interface to that hard drive interface without the black floppy that comes with brand new motherboards. In your case, you have an ASUS motherboard that probably did not come with a black floppy because you bought a complete system. You can try poking around on the Intel website to find the floppy image for Windows XP, or you can re-install Vista.

To David1357,
I have a question for you regarding the Intel ICH9 chipset in AHCI mode.
If I partitioned my disk into three parts is it be possible to set the mode to be able to run Windows XP, Windows Vista and Linux?
Regards
Paul

Don't run it in AHCI - on my motherboard, if I set up ACHI, all my old S-ATA disks disappear.
Totally - as in the BIOS doesn't see list at all.

Hi,
I spent sometime online with an hp technician last night. They looked at my pC specification, which has 6 different OEM drivers for Vista and provided me with 5 links to drivers for my system that I could download That would allow me to run XP. However, they couldn't give me a link to a Matrix Storage Manager. It may be that it doesn't exist for my chipset which was mentioned by David.

"There are certain hard drive interfaces that are supported by Vista and Linux, but not XP. If your CD-ROM is connected to one of these, you are out of luck."

It seems I'm out of luck...

So I've partitioned my hard drive into roughly 400/60GB. So I'll have to live with Vista unfortunately.

To syg00
I've set the larger space as ntfs and the smaller space is unallocated.
Do I just put the Vista disk into my drive and install this first?

Regards
Paul

Well, I have been doing some thinking. If you can change the mode of your chipset in BIOS from AHCI to Native (or whatever the alternative is), you should be able to install XP. The only downside is a performance hit. However, unless you are doing something requiring streaming data to or from your hard drive (recording live HD video, etc.) you will probably never notice the change.

400Gig - yep,you might just be able to squeeze Vista into that ...

Just go ahead - make sure it doesn't also grab the unallocated space. Should be a no-brainer.
Vista will be a bigger performance hit than turning off AHCI.

OK, on the subject of XP and AHCI.
My motherboard has an Intel ICH8 chipset. Unlike chipsets with the R extension (say, ICH8R), these do not support RAID and there aren't any drivers that will allow Windows XP to work in AHCI mode. Even so, I do run everything in AHCI and I I do have RAID (although I don't use it). It "only" took some hacking on the Intel driver. I told it that the chipset is really and ICH8R - and it is! The simple fact that Linux can use AHCI while XP can't demonstrates all too well that it isn't a hardware issue.
The fact is that most motherboard vendors and Microsoft (in particular) simply lie about XP and AHCI. The point is NOT that Windows is incompatible with AHCI, it is rather that Microsoft and motherboard vendors refuse to release a driver for XP. MS is hoping to push Vista sales by not releasing an XP AHCI driver. Motherboard vendors are hoping to cash in by pretending that XP will run only with their more expensive motherboards, for which they do release AHCI drivers.
If you prefer XP, you should do some googling. There is a good chance that someone has posted a how-to .

As for IDe versus AHCI mode, I have found that from a practical point of view, there isn't any difference in performance. In fact, given the nature of AHCI, which essentially optimizes random access, AHCI mode may in certain cases be the poorer choice for desktop systems.