questions
 

well i tried to reformat but i cant cuz my windows disk cant find the hard drive and it says i need to use fdisk for something or other. how do i access my windows partition from in linux so i can reformat it?

also, i tried to install a boot loader. i didnt install it when i first installed redhat and now when i go to add it in the update thing it says that no kernel was installed so it doesnt make any changes. do i have to reinstalll linux to install the boot loader?


-emjay

What version of Red Hat do you have?Sounds like the easiest thing to do is re-install Linux.When it ask if you want to use the entire disk say yes:)
lynch

use entire disk? you mean to just install it overtop the installation i have now, right?

-emjay

No,just let it format it and reinstall Red Hat.
lynch

what are you trying to do? format fat32 or something for linux like ext2? if you want to format your windows partition with ext2 (from linux), do "mke2fs /dev/hdxx" where xx is something like a1. I think that dos has drive "D:" which has all of the system stuff on it, so maybe you wrote over that or something? please, give more details so someone can help you out.

Also, if you recompile your kernel, don't forget to copy the kernel to /boot: "cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzimage /boot" and the System.map : "cp /usr/src/linux/System.map /boot" then run lilo, making sure that it points to your new kernel

aparently i dont have a kernel. i have my linux on a separate partition than windows and i'm trying to get to my windows partition but its not bootable so i can't access it. i've heard you sometimes need to reformat it so it can boot up but i dont know how.

and as i mentioned before, i tried to install the bootloader but it said i dont have any kernels so it doesnt do anything. i guess i have to reinstall linux to get the boot loader but what about accessing my windows partition? do i need the boot loader installed before i can get to that partition to reformat or do anything with it?

-emjay

Well you need to install a boot loader, LILO will suffice, it is real easy, just install lilo rpm from RH installation CD's, then make sure that there is way to boot windows, by the way what is the version of Windows you have? For Win95/98/Me it is enough to install LILO on MBR, there is a little tweaking going on with NT/2k/XP, after LILO installed, open up /etc/lilo.conf and post here, also post results of
/sbin/fdisk -l
And we'll proceed from there.