It is only because I have a copy of Kanotix that I'm able to write this message and appeal for help. I download the 3 ISO's of Mandrake 10.1 and tried to install them a short time ago. I defragmented my HD, backed up files and resized the NTFS partition of my 80GB hard drive in preparation for instal. When I finally came to install Mandrake there was no GUI which I was surprised at, having seen screenshots of it installing at various websites. Regardless of this I continued as carefully as I could - the absence of the GUI did confuse me a little - installing the packages I'd chosen on the three discs - it continued through the installation and it began to worry me.. when it rebooted there was no Windows option at the bootloader so I can only assume that I've totally wiped it by mistake - this is bad enough but as Mandrake only has a command line interface, it too is pretty useless to me. I tried becoming root and entering "startx" but that didn't work.. can somebody please help me sort this mess I've made, if not being able to recover Windows, at least having Mandrake installed so I have one functioning operating system on my computer! Your help and advice is greatly appreciated.


many thanks in advance,


David



(Thank God for Kanotix)

Before you panic run DrakConf and check under the Boot section and see if you can configure your boot program to boot windows. Just a thought which may or may not help.

M. Lacy.

When you boot with the installation disc 1, press "F1" for more options, instead of press "Enter". Once it gives you a prompt, type "vgalo", that should give you a GUI during installation.

Then you can continue the installation, and you shall see the fate of your Windows Partition when you get to that part. Provided it was not "erased", bootloader should add it for you automatically.

Thanks! I've got back the GUI for installing Mandrake, so that's one step forward. However, when it came to partition of the 64GB where Windows XP should be, it is empty space. I did go and install Mandrake but after I finished the install it rebooted and went back to the command line booting screen. I entered my name and password, nothing happened, then I became root and went to "startx" - this brought up KDE but it warned that I was signed into the GUI as root, it recommended that I logout as root.. when I do that then it's back to the black screen with command line again. When I did get to the KDE screen signed in as root there were no desktop icons, the background was just red (there wasn't even a clock in the bottom right hand corner of the screen!), it appeared as if I had to configure everything individually.. what's going on here? I've gone through and installed it again but it's still the same thing happening. Thanks for you help, it's very much appreciated.


David

ok, I rebooted once again and it's coming up with the KDE desktop now, eveything looks in order! Sucks that I lost about 12GB worth of MP3's from Windows but at least I'm finally getting somewhere with MDK. Now I have the pleasure of having to configure a Speedtouch 330 USB modem! Thanks for you help everyone, especially n00b!

take care,


David

You're welcome. There is alot of tweaking and playing around with Linux, not much is straight forward.

i have experinced the same problem with mandrake and XP.

if all fails put your xp disc in and go through to look at ur partitions...thenu can delete the linux partition and also check what has happened to ur xp.....

after i did this xp booted up fine and i am about to load up mandrake again and install it afresh