ok i am really bad at understanding linux i don't know what i did wrong but i can fix it and its just annoying me now. all i want to do is wipe my hard drive and reinstall linux.

how do i do it? (in simple terms please cause i arnt that great wiv linux.)

thanx

just insert the CD into the driver and reboot; then start all over again. The installation process will do the job...
Regards

Well, I see you are using redhat. In version 9.0, what you should do is boot directly off of the cdrom drive (with instalation disk 1 in) and get into the setup program, answer a few layers of questions, then do a manual partitioning.

You need:
/boot firstpartition (hda1) ~60 megs (may be a little high, gives some expansion room, redhat may complain it is small, ignore em)

swap secondpartition (hda2) ~512 megs (at least as big as your physical memory size...if you have a 40 gig drive, 512-700 is a good range for this to be in)

/ third partition (hda3) ~whatever is left (this is where all that data ends up going.

the /boot partition and the / partition both should be ext3 partitions (this gives journaling support which means less fscking later (equivilant of window's scandisk))

the swap partition should be of the type swap.... makes sense, don't it

And, I think thats all you need to do, go on with the install normally past that.


-Chris

insert cd1 & when it comes to the partition screen select automatic & it will automagically setup your partitions for you. They will be boot, / root, & swap - you can always redo this later if you like, but I always like to add in a /home partition to save my data if so that if something really bad ever happens & I have to reinstall my data is still there (backups are good too )

What are the advantages of making /boot on other partition than / ?

Whenever I dual-booted linux & windows I always set up a boot partition so that if I had to reinstall linux I wouldn't mess up my booting scheme. I always set up a home partition too for much of the same reason - if I have to reinstall I can save my data (especially if I forgot to make my weekly backups).