hi
when i want to install fc3 it tels me that there is no partition table or it is damaged.
i think i have damaged the MBR
i have windows on my pc and i can enter to it .
the installer of fc wants me to delete all partitions on my pc and rewrite a new partition but i dont want to format my hard disk.
what should i do to fix this problem?

if you can enter MS the mbr is not ''damaged"

2) it is more likely that you are using a distro that may be ancient in looking for cylinder boundaries for partitions.

3) so use a live cd....such as knoppix and run the gui program qtparted to resize BUT do not do so until you have defragged ms and left everything up one end.

then you can boot up FC if you wish

I thought that LBA came out long before Fedora 3...Bad assumption?

You can have a partition table problem even if Windows still boots.

Is Windows using the whole disk? The Windows hard-drive utility can tell you that much.

Finally, if you want to use Fedora, why not something more current? 6 is the most recent.

Try to fix your mbr by booting in windows XP cd and going into repair console and issueing a fixmbr and fixboot command.

Hope it works

Note that OP can get into Windows already---so this is not going to help

um... you can't resize windows partitions, so i guess you're installing linux OVER windows, not with windows...

if this is the case, simply tell the installer to delete ALL partitions on the drive and use default layout -- this will write a new MBR.

@poweredbydodge, Sure you can resize windows partitions, I have personally resized 3 NTFS disks and 3 FAT32 disks.

AU CONTRAIRE--MON AMI!! There are several utilities which will re-size Windows partitions.

What do you mean by: "installing linux OVER windows, not with windows..."

well i have done that before and i think that is the cause of my unreadble partition table . i have defraged my windows partitions but there is no change.i have Partition Magic 8 installed on the windows but it cant be started up and says it can find any device. .so now what should i do.and i bootup the system with a live CD and i ran the PARTED.but there was an error (i forgot where).please help

I'd suggest u only one thing format everthing (except ur DATA) and install winXP again then Linux and enjoy instead of worrying becaz the fact I've seen is although experts do advice but they r not present at ur system to solve the problem (ultimately u have to do that). I have formatted and Re-installed WinXP and Linux 5 times only becaz my MBR was corrupted trying Linux but I never was dis-appointed with Linux. (I was not knowing how to fix MBR then)

It takes only 5 hrs to format and re-install WinXP with all the necessary softwares (Sorry but In my Case, u may have more or less softwares after winxp installation).

Enjoy

how can i format everything except my data?
the fc installer asks me to erase all data on my hard.
there is no problem i can reinstall windows but i have data on my other partitions and i need theme(partition D,E,F).

Don't reformat everything yet! only as a total last resort.

I've had such problems before, the best solution i found was to use Partion Magic to create a boot disk, use this to resize and create partitions etc. But don't use it to format for the Linux filesystem let the Linux installer do that.

Try another distro and see if you have the same problem with that. Ubuntu would be a good choice.

If you can still boot into XP then your MBR is fine.

I didn't think that you could resize a Windows partition that had the operating system (Windows) installed on it? I've seen Fat 32 partitions of just data resized, same for NTFS, but I didn't know you could do it with the OS partition. (I mean, sure, you could physically do it, but I thought it killed the operating system.)

Installing over = install linux by wiping all partitions and "going from scratch" on the disk.

Installing with = installing linux in a dual boot with windows, using something like Grub to dual boot.

hello spy_deamon...

There is a simple way to repair your mbr just follow the steps below:
1) Boot your pc with a windows XP/ or any distro u are using.
2) When asked for option choose "Boot PC with CD rom support"
3) Then it will leave you to a prompt something like a:\>
4) type in a command "fdisk /mbr", check for "backslash \" or "forward slash /" i am a bit confused but this works....

let me know if this works,
Regards,
Pinaki Ghosh

I just did this on my HP/Compaq laptop. It is now dual-boot with Kubuntu and running flawlessly.
I'm sure that there are risks with re-sizing ANY partition but--yes--you can in fact re-size an NTFS partition with Windows on it.

Note that you CANNOT re-size any partion while running the OS on THAT PARTITION.