Linux broke XP?

brase · 03-04-2006, 06:32 PM

I had Windoze on my Laptop, i formatted and installed PcLinuxOS then reformatted and installed Windows now i get a Harddrive read error?

pixellany · 03-04-2006, 07:34 PM

You installed Windows without preserving the Linux install??
The installation went normally??--ie it detected and formatted your drive?
When did the error first occur?
When does the error occur--ie during what part of the startup cycle?
Are you trying to get back to a Windows-only setup?

Depending on the answers to these questions, you may need to consider "wiping" the disk and then doing a clean Windows install. For wipe, use something like DBAN--available on sourceforge.

brase · 03-04-2006, 08:19 PM

Yes completely formatted.
Yes installation went normally.
After installing PCLinuxOS & Linspire.
After bios screen when it tries to boot HDD i get a blinking line with NTFS with FAT i get NTDLR error .
I am trying to dual boot Windows and Linux.
I will try DBAN i have to "Hot swap" my hdd as i can't change the bios i'm using a ThinkPad R32 .

amosf · 03-04-2006, 09:22 PM

You can't (don't need to) reformat if you're doing dual boot. You should have just installed linux while windows was already installed and let linux do the dual boot. And avoid linspire...