I have used windows for years and was learning Linux a little when it became necessary to replace my motherboard and reinstall windows xp home.I lost Suse and it was working perfectly,comeplete with upgrades (i started with Suse 9.1 personal). I think it is still there because windows only reports two partitiions and suse tookup the third.I have a 160 HD and can only account for 120 gig. I would assume SUSE is still installed.I did not reformat only reinstalled windows.I read the book and tried to boot from the install disk both one and two but it locksup at hardware detection,specically usb. I do have a large backup drive usb,but i did have that before the reinstall and SUSE worked with it.I am unable to find YAST system repair or i would try that and try checking "repair installed system" which sounds great but i can not find this utility.I can not get past hardware detect. The chipset for the board is now NIVIDIA and was VIA Now what? Even though i know windows fairly well you will probably have to dumb this way down to help me.Totally lost Thanks

Are you trying to reinstall Suse or are you trying to Access your old Suse partition and reuse that previous installation?

I am trying to access my installed SUSE. Should i just uninstall and start over and how would i do that?

You should be able to boot from the Suse cd and choose a rescue mode.

I'm not a suse user but I'm sure one will be along soon. The process is the same as most other distros. Boot install cd in rescue mode. 'chroot' to the installation on disk. Run grub-install /dev/hdx to reinstall grub on the master boot record of the first disk. Reboot and your grub menu is back.

Like I said i'm not a suse user so there may be some specifics I left out. hopefully one will be along soon.

I did try that but the booting process locks up and i can never make it past the middle of the boot file and can not get to system repair tools i need.

How about booting the cd in rescue mode with ACPI disabled? usually acpi=off

Alternatively if it hangs at USB why not temporarily disable usb in the bios of the motherboard?

I did try disabling ACPI still locks up. I could try disabling usb.I will go try that. Could the different chipset matter as it changed after the new motherboard install?

It did not like my usb 300 gig backup. I unplugged all USB which enabled me to get into the cd to reinstall.I plugged them back in one at a time.Now i am having trouble configuring the DSL but i can probably stumble through that as i did before.Thanks for your help. Anmyone have some tips for DSL config.