hi!

After a harddisk-crash (Seagate ST3120023A, 120 GB) I bought two identical Seagate ST3120022A (also 120 GB).

On my old HDD I had the following configuration:

/dev/hda1 (8 GB) ntfs - Windows XP
/dev/hda5 (15 GB) ntfs - Programmes for Win XP
/dev/hda6 (40 GB) ntfs - My Documents
/dev/hda7 (40 GB) ntfs - Multimedia (audio, video)
/dev/hda8 (15 GB) ext3 - Slackware 9.1
/dev/hda9 (rest) Linux swap

- everything worked correctly

Now I wish to use the new discs for:

/dev/hda1 (10 GB) ntfs - Windows XP
/dev/hda5 (25 GB) ntfs - Programmes for Win XP
/dev/hda6 (rest) ntfs - My Documents and Multimedia

/dev/hdb1 (119 GB) ext3 - Slackware 9.1
/dev/hdb5 (rest) Linux swap

Windows works, but I'm not able to use Slackware any longer.

After booting the installed version the filesystem is only mounted as read-only. If I try to test some things it is possible that I get a Kernel-Panic. Mounting /dev/hdb1 as read-write via Knoppix 3.3 is possible but types EXT3-fs errors. e2fsck is not running because the system is not ext2.

I tested the installation of Mandrake 9.2 - and everything is ok. After deleting this distribution and installing Slackware again I have the same problems.

Any ideas? I wish to use a "good" distribution, not a commercial version like Mandrake...

I checked the RAM-Modules and both Seagate-Drives, but the hardware works correctly.

Thanks a lot!

I might suggest breaking the 119 GB partition into several partitions for separate filesystems. I believe you would certainly want at least a /usr and a /home filesystem. That way you can keep your root level down to a manageable size. Not that this is your problem, but it may be. It also aids backing up the system, even if you only mirror the filesystems on another local filesystem.

Thank you - I tryed to install with this partitions:

/dev/hdb1 (8 GB) /
/dev/hdb5 (15 GB) /usr
/dev/hdb6 (95 GB) /home
/dev/hdb7 (2 GB) swap

The result is the same - / was only mountet as ro and the boot process was broken by a Kernel-Panic.

Any other ideas?

Any particular messages besides Kernel Panic? The only thing I can think of at the moment is that somehow the installation is not updating lilo properly (assuming lilo, general slackware default), that's the problem I usually see. You might be able to check/update with Knoppix (you can chroot once you have that essential delicious root prompt), or perhaps install a minimal Mandrake installation (steal some space from /home for this) while leaving the slackware installation intack, boot into Mandrake and then add in the slackware installation as an extra boot option (through grub which I believe in the Mandrake default, or lilo).