Why Did Zenwalk Install Over My Vista And Kill My Computer?
 

hey Linux bodies

I valiantly decided to try and escape the clutches of Gates & co the other day.
Put a copy of zenwalk on a stick, transfered to disc DVD and set about doing a dual-boot
type installation. Admittedly, I think I touched my track pad at a crucial moment,
but the end result has been that linux partitioned itself a space and formatted it
directly on top of Windows Vista Home premium. Windows came with my laptop, so I have
no restore disc for it. Not only that, but one of the files was corrupted in zenwalk,
so I now have NO operating system at all. So here I am sitting in my local library trying
to download zenwalk lite onto a stick, and begging someone to tell me how I can get my Windows
back, along with all the programs it has taken me six months to collect and explore and
organise to my satisfaction. I really think it strange that such a sophisticated bunch of
excellent programs cant work out that for most people, with 150 gig of free space on their
hard drive, a linux system could better find an emplt space to install itself when doing
auto-partition, rather than on top of $300 worth of Microsoft OS!! C'mon. A feud is a feud,
but that's rediculous.

Can anyone tell me how to get my $2000 machine running again? Preferrably without having to
spring for a new version of windows vista? I am not the enemy here!!

I regret that my first post should be so negative, as I wouldn't be trying to switch to Linux
if I didn't share some of your outlook, But this is too stupid and too expensive a way for
me to waste my life savings!!!!

HELP!!! aka zog49@hotmail.co.uk

Are you absolutely certain that you have formatted the ntfs partition? You would be warned numerous times about what you were about to do; i.e. destroy a partition that contained an os. If you ignored the warnings and went ahead with the partitioning then........

Any install would have required free space to to create a new partition. Did you check that you had free space before you started?

If you went ahead and partitioned over the MS os and installed the new os then it's gone forever.

You need to get a boot disk like Knoppix and do an examination of the contents of the drive and report back.

What you're saying is not quite possible, unless you had no clue what you were doing. I've installed Zenwalk before and it installs just like Slackware. You first must use a partitioning program like fdisk or cfdisk to make a new partition, then select the new partition, and have it install in there. If you happen to screw up, indeed you could have done what you said happened. But, it is YOUR fault. Not to sound mean, tho. I'm just saying, don't blame Linux or the programmers who made the partitioning program ... they are not at fault. Also, I don't know what you mean by 'auto-partition', I don't remember there being such a thing in Zenwalk, and I see in the Zenwalk manual that there is no such thing, there's only cfdisk.

If your laptop is a Dell (I'm sure other companies do this too), if you call them, they'll help you get Window$ back on there.

Did you select the option to take over the whole disk? If so, you probably did overwrite your windows partition.

Vista does not play nice with the bootloaders though. Does the computer boot at all? Just into Zenwalk?

As a side note, did you know Zenwalk has a live cd version that you could try without an install? Many distros have that; it is a good way to see if you like it before you go any further.

Zenwalk does have an option now that will allow you to overwirte everything (I think the selection is labeled "Auto Install") and then it proceeds to automatically partition your disk and do a full install. No cfdisk no fdisk required. You are prompted before doing this though.

I'm sure that's what I did, but it was inadvetant, and I can't help the feeling that it was too damn easy to do in an area where info is scarce and the motivation to try out something non-vista is so great. I would have thought there must be a way to partition a big disc in such a way that the existing OS is protected? I'm no programmer, but if I was doing the code writing I'd make sure I wasn't creating new business for the "Great Satan" of Redmond!

Is there any way to recover my missing windows, or do I have to buy a new copy and start again from scratch?

My other concern is that the advice, for a newbie like myself, reads like a spilt tin of alphabetti spaghetti, and is less than useless

However, as the song says, "I'm still willin". Us Scots don't give up easily.

Thanks again buddy

zog49@hotmail.co.uk
PS have you checked out the BBC H2G2.com site? I'm known as quarkafleeg there, and its one of the most eccentric places online I ever found!

In order to get a new copy of Vista, you'll have to take the laptop back to where you bought it. OEM resellers are also responsible for offering support. And if they really made you pay $300 for a copy of Vista Premium, they should have given you a cd. It is only OEM versions that come without install cd and those cost only $100...

I fully understand your frustration but you should have taken a back-up first. I don't know any distro that will overwrite another partition without being told to do so but accidents will happen. As you say, you probably hit your track pad at a bad moment. Surely you didn't expect that the installer would ignore it? An installer that does not respond to your choices - even if they are unintentional - that would be a poor installer.

No noticeable warnings at all pal. If I'd been told I was going to destroy my OS i would have stopped there. I had 147 Gig of free space, so why the hell did it partition the minority sized bit of the 250 gig to install itself. Thats what is boggling my brain more than anything!

Im now going to try zenwalk lite, but I'll beg librarian to let me download knoppix before i get thrown out!

Thanks for the tip!

The autoinstall does prompt again and it does say everything will be erased from the selected disk. Maybe you hit the touchpad at the worng time?

Zenwalk really is a great distro. I just got a laptop from Dell Outlet and wiped Vista right off of it.

Rescue CD
 

System Rescue CD is a smaller download:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/sys...-x86-1.0.1.iso
Go into G-Parted (DON'T FORMAT ANYTHING!)
You can check to see if your NTFS partition is still there.
If it is still there, you may still have problems if you did not perform a disk fragmentation of Windows before trying to install Zenwalk.Also, Windows keeps a separate partition at the end of your hard drive that stores the backup files for Restore. You would still need a Windows boot disk though to access that partition. Not sure if you can copy a boot disk from another computer though.
Good luck from a fellow Scotsman.

Viasta-less one!
 

Thanks for all the useful suggestions, friends. I'm now back in library downloading Knoppix and ubuntu after reading an encouraging article in Micromart. Thinking back, there was a choice of three options just before things went tits-up, but I didn't understand any of them. I fancy that's where my slip of the thumb happened and set off the train of events which led me here!

All the advice much appreciated tho, and I'll keep you posted!

Thanks:rolleyes:

Good luck with your linux install. At lease you need not worry about deleting windows ;)
You might want to go back and edit your email address out of your previous posts, unless you want the spam-bots to read and harvest it :(

return to topic
 

On further expensive investigation it seems windows has been given a password by me during the installation process. However, they cannot help me further, as it lives in BIOS and they have no influence over it!

Which leaves the begging question, "What do I do now?" Is there a hacker-type prog which will scroll through the possibilities until it hits gold? Or do I just use itnto prop up a wobbly table leg?

This cannot be the best sollution to getting a look at an operating stystem, or inded, of rescuing an accidentally fornicated machine!

Please help folks. Is it something I said?!!!

Love and icecubes

wildwestcoaster

new windows
 

They say they would supply me with a new version of windows, but a bpart of BIOS needs a password available only from me! Go figure!

Thanks for taking an interest, and do you know a way to wangle this problem?

Why makwe it so damn easy to wreck a perfecctly good laptop so easily, especially for someone who is so obviously inexperienced?

Give me strength!

Power to you m8

Well, if you're the one who but the password for the BIOS, then you should know it. If you don't know it, you can probably re-flash the BIOS as long as you have a disk that can do that. For example, I got such a disk with my motherboard. I suppose they didn't give you such a disk ?

I don't think a BIOS can be flashed if it is locked. I could be wrong but it seems counterintuitive.
There are a at least two solutions but neither may work (in which case the laptop needs to be returned to the manufacturer). All of them will require you to do a bit of surgery and unfortunately, this part tends to be a lot easier to on a desktop system.
The first thing to do is check whether your BIOS has a resetter. You just push it with a pin and that should be all it takes. If that is not an option, you will have to find a way to power BIOS down. For example, take out the battery for a few hours.

There's nothing wrong with the laptop - you just hosed the Windows installation. You can:

Get Linux installed and working and live with that, or,

Buy a new copy of Windows and re-install.

All this recreational whining isn't helping you at all.

It depends, does the BIOS stop you from being able to boot anything, or from changing the settings, or from booting just some things ?

A lost BIOS password can be reset if you remove the CMOS battery. The password is not "burnt" to flash memory (like the BIOS itself is), it is held in CMOS RAM, like your RTClock, and will disappear if all power is removed for a few minutes.

Removing the battery might be awkward on a laptop, compared to a desktop, but see here: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000235.htm

Download super grub from somewhere and tell it to restore your mbr,you might be pleasantly supprised.


preg

GRUB? I don't see what the MBR has to do with BIOS...

This is why you should always double check your settings when you install a new operating system and you should backup before formatting, or partitioning anything. Your laptop is not wrecked, it(physically) is perfectly fine.

jay73 Nothing to do with bios,However I did not see where he said he had actually LOOKED at the contents of his drive.I have lost a partition before and recovered it with SUPER GRUB,not just "grub".In the future I will offer no further ideas or help,but simply look in awe for substantial answers from the Senior Members.And I might add this person did what many Newbies do,blame a linux distro for a sloopy no research install.


Have a nice day!

well I'm sorry folks, I thought that in 2008 things were expllained, and had enough safeguards built in to prevent easiliy- preventable diasaters! Still no one has explained why, with 150 gig of free disc space, the installation had to use part of the obviously nescessary used section to do the blinking install!

Answer that and I promise you a vegetarian Haggis!!

Love and light
John
zog49@hotmail.co.uk

I dunno, I'm sure if you go into the field of computing you can design and implement safeguards and attempt to make a system foolproof. I can tell you that you can never make anything foolproof, fools are too foolish and bypass any foolproofing mechanism you might invent. Instead, try acting upon the fools not the machines they are destined to use. Tell them to RTFM, and tread carefully, because the system is not foolproof.

There is a safeguard, its called always having a backup

because if it was preinstalled with vista, that means it is ONE partition. no matter what size it is, two OS's can't be installed, instead you HAVE to create a new partition. and zenwalk will install itself to it. compare that to a windows install that doesn't let you install on a new partition and instead uses the whole disk.

I would love to "re-flash" my BIOS and get back in control of my machine. I trust that a competent repair shop will have the whwerewithall to accomplish this? Because Clairewood Computers in Academy Street Dufmries sem to just glaze over when I go in to see if they've made any progress!

I'll try to download zenwalk lite to a stick now and hope for the best!

Thanks for your help

Did you read my post @ #19?
Did you follow the link I gave you there?