Howdy,

I'm definitely new to this... Anyways, I just spent a week downloading slackware on torrent, and just got it. I'm trying to install it on an old computer that used to be a windows 98, and died. I think it has a 3 gig Hard Drive(I know it sucks, but it was free... what more can I ask for?). It no longer has windows on it, and has been formatted.

So, I put the DVD in, and the main screen comes up, so I click on. Yadda yadda yadda, then I get to the part where it says you may need to make a Linux partition. I know I haven't done this, so I try the first option, cfdisk. that comes up with "FATAL ERROR HAS OCCURED:cannot open disk drive press any key to exit cfdisk". So, I exited, and tried fdisk. it came up with the examples, I had no idea what it was talking about, so I tried all of the examples, none of which worked.

So, now what?

In fdisk you have to type:
fdisk <nameofhdd>
probably in your comp it will be :
fdisk /dev/hda

There is a beautiful book in the Slackware DVD called Slackbook. Go thorugh it first. IT will be able to tell you the correct way and everything.

Welcome to LQ!

It sounds like the hard drive is bad. Who is the manufacturer?
There are utilities to test them. If you don't know who made
the hard drive, get SeaTools from Seagate and test the drive.

okay... first guy, I said I tried the stuff that it had as examples, and that was the first example.

Second guy, it's a Western Digital (used to be a dell compy), and How would I go about testing it if the computer doesn't work. would I set it up as a slave?

Download Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS (CD) and run the Extended Test.

Those instructions are easy to follow.