Partion problem

Pedroski · 04-17-2004, 03:09 AM

My friend recently got an old computer from work. It was part of a network, using Novell and Win 98. There is a 40GB hard-drive. It has a c: and d: . He said he can't get rid of the old system.
I tried format c: under dos, worked fine. But nothing can get rid of d:. We tried fdisk, format, del *.*, it just won't go away. It has one file winsetup.swp.
I said I would bring my Linux cds next week.
Will disk druid be able to do the trick??
How do I do the dirty on d:??

compu73rg33k · 04-17-2004, 09:05 AM

boot from a linux cd and then do fdisk and you should be able to delete it...

michaelk · 04-17-2004, 10:20 AM

Don't know why DOS fdisk wouldn't work. You have to select delete logical partition.

sterrenkijker · 04-17-2004, 10:33 AM

You need to know formatting doesn't delete a partition (c: / d

, it just removes the contents of a partition.

If fdisk can't delete it, try fdisk \mbr (I think it was).

But what do you want? Do you want to get rid of the windows-partitions and install linux or do you want to reinstall windows (then this would be the wrong forum).

If you want to install linux, I would suggest using the partitioning program from your installer...

j0ntar · 04-17-2004, 11:28 AM

its format /mbr but it does nothing anymore, and he isnt trying to format his master boot record.

www.knoppix.net
www.gentoo.org (get the live cd)
http://www.lnx-bbc.org/

as the above reader said, use fdisk with any of these livecds. I do believe the gentoo distro has partimage installed which may help i cant remeber if partimage has partition deleting options or not <dot dot dot> its worth a try.

Pedroski · 04-18-2004, 03:36 AM

Well thanks for the tips. I'll stick my Fedora cd in. See if that does the trick.
We tried all options of fdisk, ie the numbers 1 to 4.
Didn't know about fdisk /mbr though
And format d: wouldn't even start.
Can't do anything til Tuesday.

j0ntar · 04-18-2004, 10:25 PM

windows fdisk and linux fdisk are 2 completely diffrent things.
thats why i suggest the linux lives cds.

Pedroski · 04-24-2004, 02:53 AM

Well we got the bugger: ran SuSe Live Eval from cd, and remade a vfat partion, then my friend could install his Win 98. Why he wanted to do that I don't know!!

So Linux triumphed, whatever way you look at it!