Partition Magic + XP Pro w/ NTFS + trying to install Linux Redhad 7.2
 

:newbie: :eek:

Ok just had a near death experience with my laptop. I am currently running XP with NTFS and loaded Partition Magic 8 so that I can repartition my hardrive to load Linux Red Hat 7.2

Anyway, after the repartioning the drive with PM8 it called for a reboot. When it rebooted it converted the drives. Then it reboots again.

upon the third reboot. XP flashed accross the screen and bam! it rebooted over and over again. I totally freaked! I thought "Damn just lost everything"

I then booted to the PM8 rescue disk and ran diagnostics. I had a CRC Cylical Redundency Check Error. Meaning there is a corrupted file. I thought "Oh great I'm doomed"

The support info at http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id131.cfm tells you to run chkdsk /r.

So how do you do it?

Boot the Win XP install disk and skip the recover from disk option. (It will ask for a floppies that I guess you were suppose to make at some time.) I let the install begin and there is yet another recovery option (Do not re-install the XP. It will appear as if it is reinstalling the OS but you'lll get another screen) Anyways run the recovery console. You will get a DOS prompt and type chkdsk /r. It will then run some diagnostics and fix the corrupt file.
(note: I tried to do a DIR in the DOS prompt and it gave me an error. Don't freak....Just type CHKDSK /R.) It will take a while but it works. Afterwards reboot and your XP OS should start.


Now that I'm at square 1 again does anyone know how to get Linux installed? The partitions are still there. I want to load linux but do not want to recover from another diasater.

Also how do you set Partion Magic or the OS to give you an OS Chooser screen?

Rico

put the redhat disk in the drive set your mobo to boot off of cd follow the prompts, this is the install linux part, within the redhat install there is a partition manager use that to reformat your linux partition just to make sure its done correctly since pm is rather squirrely then linux itself has two wonderful bootloaders i suggest using lilo, near the end of the install it will give you prompts for configuring that i would reccomend installing it in the mbr

Does lilo work with WinXP
 

Ok, i just installed red hat 7.2 but my professor said that if I use lilo or grub, it will hose my XP mbr and XP will not work.

Is this true? or does it work fine?

He suggested booting from a floppy. I don't like that because if I lose the disk I'm SOL

Well it happened. The boot disk became corrupt. Now I have to reload the OS.

Not only that Red hat doesn't recognize my LCD screen or the Ethernet NIC and all I have is pink and green stripes.

This is why I was discouraged from using Linux in the past.

I own a Gateway 9550 XL
Pentium III 1.13 G
32 MB Nvidia gx2 to go
30 GB IBM Hdd with 4 partitions.
20 GB NTFS
2 GB FAT
6 GB ext2
594 MB swap
512 MB RAM
Intel on board 10/100 NIC
Linksys 11 mb Wireless NIC
15.5 LCD

ARGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!
Rico
:risk: :tisk:

Have a look here, here and here for 9550 install help and here for generic linux laptop info.

Both lilo and grub can boot NT when installed to the mbr, if you decide to use lilo then download a new version from the net instead of the one that redhat supply, you can restore the winxp botloader from the recovery console and boot your redhat install with the redhat install cd.

Thank You :)

now I just need to remember how to use the vi editor

Rico

kernel upgrade- Patience is running out
 

OK I've now been working with this over a day.

I'm not to convinced if I want to pursue this anymore. This piecing together the OS to make it work is driving me insane.

Turns out my nvidia driver is not available for Kernel 2.4.7-10

So I tried to upgrade the Kernel to 2.4.18-26

now I'm getting error failed dependencies
modutils >=2.4.18 is needed by the kernel 2.4.18.26.7.x
dev < 3.2-7 conflicts with kernel 2.4.18.26.7.x
iptables < 1.2.5-3 conflicts with kernel 2.4.18.26.7.x

I downloaded the modutils upgrade and installed it, now what?

although the forums and the websites help, I feel like I'm getting answers with riddles.

search for info, go here, read this, download that, install, oh another error,

search for info, go here, read this, download that, install, oh another error

search for info, go here, read this, download that, install, oh another error

This is rediculous

Try RedHat 8.0. The install is BRAINLESS and you can use an nvidia video card right out of the box. Just use whatever the installer choses as a default, and your hardware should work on the first boot. Everything and the kitchen sink comes with RH 8.0. That's either good or bad depending on who you ask. I know that's not what you want to hear but.... :(

Also, I had Linux and XP dual booting just fine with GRUB until XP decided to hose itself.

Bought RedHat 8.0

tried to upgrade....no dice

I'm going to try a clean install

:(