Hi All!

I have two identical SATA hardrives (both maxtor 250 GB)...

One contains winxp (games, etc) - as, its basically a game machine - but, also many important documents.

The other is empty (I wiped it to install Mandriva 10.2).

The problem is that I have no confidence as to which hardrive is the "empty" one during setup/configuration.

The installer interface only tells me the size of the drives. Unfortunately, they are both the same size.

QUESTION: Is there any way to verify the freespace on the available physical drives during setup?
--i.e., If I could "see" the amount of freespace, I could easily identify the "empty" drive that I want to instal to.


Thanks for any help!

--worried that I might overwrite the wrong drive

The installer should refer to the drives as SDA1 and SDA2. You could try to select "expert" mode which will then allow you to see the partitions on each disc. Then if you're uncomfortable there drop back into "automatic".

Alternatively physically remove the Windows drive, install Mandrake, Power down, reconnect the Windows drive and then boot from the CD, choose rescue and write the Bootloader to Drive C:

I'll remember that for next time.

I ended up running KNOPPIX to determine which -- i.e., SDA1 and SDA2 -- contained the data I wanted to preserve.

Thanks!!!