LinuxQuestions.org

LinuxQuestions.org (/questions/)
-   Linux - Newbie (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/)
-   -   Problems involving installation (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/problems-involving-installation-438490/)

Visual Basic Imp 04-24-2006 08:26 PM
Problems involving installation
 
Well, I wanted to put Linux on my computer, and I really liked a new GUI-centered Linux named Symphony OS. As a result, I bought an 80GB IDE Maxxtor Hard Drive and linked it up to my other hard drive, so that i had one HDD running Windows, and one running Linux. So i put Symphony OS on my hard drive, and created all the partitions i needed (1 5GB ext3 major, 512MB Linux Swap Extention). So then i rebooted my computer, but it wouldnt work. I then tried again, and it think i erased the HDD, but im not really sure. i did make new partitions though. Then, the people on the Symphony OS forums said that i should choose a more stable OS to start on (i dont know any linux, and very little hardware jury-rigging for my aspirations) so then i chose mandriva OS to start with. Unfortunately, this is where my problems started. the live CD i downloaded didnt go past the load screen no matter what i did, so i, very frustrated, decided to extract the ISO onto this hard drive. For some reason now, i cant load either Windows or linux and i get a start up message for Gateway, then the screen just goes blank. The only things that work now are OSes on live disk, and even then i havent been able to get any of them to butn sucessfully on my hard drive where i can load them on start up.
If anybody knows what exactly i did wrong, please help me, i actually tried unpluging either of the hard drives and they still wont work.
Thanks for reading this!

masonm 04-24-2006 09:23 PM
Extracting the ISO of a LiveCD onto the HDD won't do squat without a bootloader. It sounds like that's where your current problem lies.

Download and burn a proper distro and install it. It will (should) install a bootloader and you'll be able to boot into either OS.

Check out something like Ubuntu or SimplyMepis.

Visual Basic Imp 04-25-2006 04:14 PM
okay. Thanks so much. see, my issue came from the fact that i also had windows, and it wouldnt boot either, unless windows doesnt have a bootloader, which would make perfect sense regardless.
Thanks so much anyway, i am actually installing Ubuntu as i speak.


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:12 PM.