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I am installing Slack 9.1 on my Dell Inspiron 8200. I am installing it an a partitioned HD in the modular bay.
I am having trouble getting started. I have Slack Disks 1-4, the boost disk and the 2 install floppies.
Problem 1:
I want to partition the modulalr HD in half: one FAT32 so I can share files btwn linux and XP and the other half will be the Linux install. The problem is, with that HD in the modular bay, I can't boot up with the floppy because that also goes in the modular bay. I have LACie USB floppy but BIOS doesn't recognize it. It only gets loaded once XP loads. I need to load Win98 boot disk so I can partition the drive with FAT32 because I read that the Linux formatting software doesn't do a good job of making FAT32 partitions.
Problem 2:
Same problem basically as 1, but instead of needing the Win98 disk to run, I need a way to get the Slack boot disk to run.
Distribution: Mac OS X 10.6.4 "Snow Leopard", Win 7, Ubuntu 10.04
Posts: 322
Rep:
I don't know, since ou have a Dell and sometimes they hide all features of the BIOS, but can you get the into the BIOS? Normally by presing [del] pr [F2] or something similar when you power on? If you can get into it, you could change the CD ROM as the first boot device, so you wouldn't need to use the floppies.
I can get into BOIS with F2. I was thinking of just burning the data from the floppies onto CDs, but I wasn't sure if Slack/Win98 would let me load the stuff I need from the CD ROM drive.
The Slack installation CD's are bootable. Make sure that in your BIOS, the CD device is first in the boot sequence. If all goes well, you should just need to burn the CD's (burn them as an Image - don't just copy the ISO), leave the CD in the drive, then reboot. Good luck with it. -- J.W.
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