I am attempting my first instal of Slackware in new formatted Reiserfs partitions, created by Partition Magic, and an existing swap file

The machine is a dual boot (XP, Mandriva), the existing partitions work well and the partition table is error free.

Setup does not detect these partitions in the way illustrated in the installation guide.

It returns to the partitioning section reqiiring the use of fdisk to create partitions in what it sees as apparently unformatted drive with no readable partition table.

What could I try?

johnfw

Go with fdisk and let Slack partition the partition you created. It won't hurt and Slack allows for reiser

The problem is in disk geometry difference,different programs (fdisk,P.Magic...wrote different disk geometry).I found that one man solved this problem by erasing unneeded partitions by http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing...ert/index.html and then creating new ones.

How many drives are in your computer - and are they IDE or SCSI or SATA?

I'm wondering if maybe you selected a non sata kernel (bare.i), in which case it not showing you your sata drive, but possibly an IDE drive in the system.