hi, I installed linux a while ago, and it used to go really well (I was stoked). Then I formatted the hard drive using fdisk. Then I installed win98 on a partition. It called it hda. Linux was on hdb1/2/3 etc. However, I've since taken windows out using the linux installation disk formats, and it's now just linux. However, it's running on hdb still, though hda no longer exists, and I've done a complete reinstall since then - not just / and /usr . Everything. Also, ever since having win98, its been slower to boot, the thing stalls a bit longer before the kde window comes up and starts loading my window manager. Also also, when using the k menu quick browser, going over /mnt makes the system jam (not crash) for a few minutes, following which, the whole thing runs unrunnably slow. What must I do???

to make a faster startup
remove services you do not need
type
setup
and goto services(i am assuming you have redhat linux)
and remove some of the services
which you do not need
keep posted

try moving your datafiles from the windows partition just so you have the ones you want and then reformat that windows partition to ext2 or something like that.
You said something about the windows partition not being there anymore. If it is just free space then maybe you have old fstab settings showing it as a windows drive and therefore would cause trouble when linux trys to access it. Check out your /etc/fstab and see if there's anything you can remove