I like linux and did very well at learning to use mandrake 8.2. I did not however pay attention to the way a partition was made or deleted. I have a 10gb harddrive (no room at all ) and had a windows partition and a linux partition. I did not know that i needed to kill the old linux partition before installing the new one. Now i have crossed a partition and have 2 linux partitions that i cant get to and fdisk wont get rid of either one. i am running on a small windows partition (1.7 gb) as thats all that is left of my harddrive. I used the mandrake software to try to fix the whole thing at once, but harddrake says that the drive is to far gone to read. I used partition magic and got the same results. To clear up the problem to the bottom line: I have 2 linux partitions that are CROSSED. then i have one small partition that has windows on it. I would like to erase the entire harddrive but partition magic and fdisk say no way. Any suggestions would be great.
thanks.

Have you tried to use cfdisk? IT´s a little more advanced version of fdisk, maybe it can do the job. If it´s windowsxp you run (or 2000) You can try too boot from the cd and see if that one can reformat the drive (but do it in fat32!)

check out either of the programs "fips" or "parted" both of them are just like partition majic... but free ( from gnu ). they will let you delete your partition. Or you can just make a linux boot w/ fdisk and mke2fs on it and re-format the whole drive.....

you probably don't need to do that though. what do you get when you do "fdisk /dev/<hda?>" then do "p" to print your partition table?

remember that you need a main partition for linux as well as a little bit set aside for swap.

I don't know... maybe I just don't understand what you mean by "crossed". If nothing works and you don't mind loosing everything, you could just do the bood disk ----> format whole drive thing.

good luck.... post that partition table before you do anything TOO drastic.

ok i have used one other program and got no results. (dont remember which one) but as for the CROSSED part. Let me clear that up. I have a partition that is linux mandrake and then i have another linux mandrake and the two have CROSSED. They have files that are sharing the same partition. I need a way to BLANK or WIPE the whole hard drive. the fdisk screen says that there are no logical drives in the extended partition. i cant deleat the extended dos partition because it wont let me.<P>
as for the fdisk/dev/<hda?> it says that the file is not found. <p>
as for the system, i did not say before, i am running a crappy gateway 433 with a quantam fireball 10gb harddrive. windoze 98 and would like to get me linux back at all cost.

as for the fdisk/dev/<hda?> it says that the file is not found. <p>

You have to write
fdisk /dev/hda

if it´s your main harddisk you´re trying to erase

i am sorry, i am confused and have probley confused you also. I have only one harddrive. the primary partition is a C:\windows partition. the extended DOS partition is where the linux partitions are and i cant get to them at all. therefore the hda "Name" is no good (i dont think) . fdisk says " can not deleat extended dos partitions while logical drives exist." but it wont let me deleat the logical drives either. at the same time, my windoze software wont let me "reformat" the entire harddrive. only the C:\ partition can be formatted. 66% of my harddrive is linux and i cant get to any of it. also i have a old windoze partition that is also locked out to me. I need one or two commands to erase or Blank the entire harddrive, then ill put linux back in and be happy as a dog with a big old bone. the only other thing to do is to buy a new harddrive and i cant afford that right now. I am at a loss. I also took my harddrive and put it on a windows xp computer and had no luck.

Hmm, that´s a pretty bad situation. Well i can tell you that in linux your harddisk is /dev/hda, and the partitions on it will be called /dev/hda1 & /dev/hda2 etc. If you had more harddisk the next would be called /dev/hdb etc. etc.

Okay have you got cfdisk installed, or can you get it?

When you have that you can write:
cfdisk /dev/hda -z
the -z option will let you start with a clean partition table and you can then build it up from there and then choose write. Then cfdisk won´t read your existing partition table.

Cfdisk is a more advanced version of fdisk, but has a pretty good interface

I just checked up, and cfdisk should come with mandrake, otherwise you can get it here:

http://rpmfind.net//linux/RPM/contri...8g-1.i386.html

Any Linux version of fdisk, and its derivatives such as cfdisk, will handle this problem. Windows fdisk cannot deal with Linux filesystems.

Oh i didn´t think of if you meant "windows fdisk" or "linux fdisk" i just assumed you meant the linux version, all i refer to here is for linux tools

if you really wanna erase your whole harddrive and start from scratch, make a linux boot disk, and when it boots up, do "fdisk" and erase all the partitions. make two new partitions, one large, and one somewhere around double your ram. then run "mke2fs /dev/hda1" then "mkswap /dev/hda2"

I think that should do it, but again if you are in linux right now, do "fdisk /dev/hda" then press "p" and then post your partition table (that's what it'll spit out)

Also, post your /etc/fstab file.... I don't understand what you mean by CROSSED still :-(

Thanks for all the help and i want you to know that it has all been to the good. I learn something everytime everytime i screw up ( and with linux its often lol) but i found a better way. The sectors on the hard drive were "crossed" or "tangled up" or "over laping". which ever term you want it was a mess. Now i said i learn something and this time i learned to let a linux partition program do the job as they have the best stuff anyway. To fix the problem i just wrote Zero's to the drive, blanked it out, and reformated. Some times the simple things evade me till i run up on it by acceident. Mabey this post will help others who may want to play with getting rid of a partition that they crossed up with another. Bottom line: let linux do its job and just enjoy being "windows" free. Lesson learned.
thanks.

I've always wondered why some versions of Windows Fdisk can see Linux partitions, but only the Win2k one can actually delete them... Guess Microwhack doesn't want to admit other OS's exist