ok, it seems im slightly better with linux that i thought, but still bad enough to not be able to get backtrack installed without messing with GRUB
I first booted from liveCD, and using GParted deleted the partition backtrack was on +swap, i then had to move my Mint installation left and expand over the unallocated space (which took an age)
Then my GRUB was totally screwed and wouldnt boot into anything, so again onto liveCD, found my mint distro partition using the command you posted above, and mounted the necessary folders from it, to /mnt to be able to run apt-get install grub-pc
now back on my mint, i added all the info incase someone else ever searches.
Any ideas why installing backtrack made such a mess? guessing the guided partitioning didnt do what i expected? it put sda7 + 8 above 5+6 from the list below, and must have messed with the GRUB as mint was moved
Should my filesystem be like this?
Code:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 12 96358+ de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 13 25 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 25 28632 229782519+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 28633 60802 258398965+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 28633 59809 250427392 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 59810 60802 7968768 82 Linux swap / Solaris
you see sd4, what is that, sda5 and sda6 are within it, is this normal? i guess it must be, seeing as mint is sda5 and sda6.