i am having a problem that is giving me fits. i have a sony vaio fx370 and recently installed debian 2.1 over winxp. i decided that i didn't want a dual boot system, but had i known the problems i would run into, i would have done that differently. anyway, i changed my mind and tried to install xp from the recovery discs. i was going to re-install debian as a dual boot. now i can't get the xp recovery to run, and the debian won't run either. the error message comes when it tries to add files to c drive. it says make sure the disc 1 is in the drive and hit enter. then it says the restore process is terminated, remove the cd, hit any key to power off system. i put the hard drive in my desktop as a slave, and had problems finding it until i ran norton windoctor. it said the drive wasn't formatted and asked me to format it, so i did. then i could save data to the drive, so i thought it was fixed. not. this is why i hate microsoft. i know this is not a linux problem, but if anyone could see fit to provide some insight or point me in the right direction, that would be great. thanx,

DO NOT!!! low level format a drive that can be saved as EVERYTHING IS ERASED!!!!


since you already formatted it there is no real choice but to "Low level format" it now and erase the MBR (that was probably the orig prob.)

go to the disk mfg. website and get the utility, extract it on a floppy then put both back into the laptop.


DO NOT!!! low level format a drive that can be saved as EVERYTHING IS ERASED!!!!


p.s. a low level can take many hours on lg. drives 10+ gig.....

hey there

first of all format winblow clean out every think with a winblow boot disk example format c: then hit yes ok when it finish then install linux you could make a dual boot it is a very good dea, always make a dual boot even you are not installing winblow. if u have enough hard hard space you could add other partition hard drive, the microsoft resue cd will not work i will repeat the cd will not if u have want winblow then you have to get the cd installation cd if you allready install linux and it in ur hard drive get linux boot disk and fix lilo or if you don't have on just make it

the MBR (master boot record) cant be erased by regular formatting.

FDISK /MBR or "fixboot" cant take it out either because Win and Linux both prevent tampering/wiping unless done by the original OS that was installed.

been there, done that.....

i have installed linux / windows on several used hard drives, overwriting the original contents of those drives and i have never had a problem.

linux will overwrite the mbr every time you run /sbin/lilo. if you are using grub then this is different, somehow. i am not familiar wit grub although i can't be too different

windows xp, at least my install disk, has a disk formatting option. it overwrites the mbr as part of the install process, and i would assume earlier versions of windows do the same.

this behavior on the part of windows is the reason why when doing a dual boot it is 'quicker' to install windows first, as if you install linux first your subsequent windows installation will overwrite the mbr that linux created.

i never do a full format, i always choose the 'quick format option'. i have heard though that if you do not do a full format for a long time, your disk will get lopsided and out of balance, what with having too many zeros or ones on a particular side !

i do appreciate all the help, i was lost for awhile. when i had the hdrive in the other box, i did a quick format, i guess that left the mbr, i never even thought of that. it really surprised me this time, i have wiped it before with norton. i guess it left the mbr and i couldn't see it or something. i think i will pursue the drive website and go from there. thanx to all.