Hello eveyone

I am fairly new to Linux although I have been able to insatll a previous version of Suse on my laptop.

I tried to install SUSE Linux 10.0 today. I wanted to use my second hardrive for Linux system. I have the Abit AI7 board/P4 2.4C/ 512 ram/and 2 SATA 160GB drivers.

The hardrives are not set as Raid, but I got 2 messages saying: they were set to Raid, and that the hardrive did not have emnough space (or something like that).

Installationi got halted and had to reboot system. Once I booted I went into Windows to check the drive. The second hardrive was no longer usable under Windows. Good thing I have a back up somewhere

What I want to do is intall SUSE into second hardrive use up to 5 Gigs of disk space and leave the rest for Windows also keep my first drive as it is with Windows2000.

What did I do wrong? How can I make sure that I can install Linux on only a portion of the disk?

Thank you

Daniel

Based on your comments, my guess is that the second drive was completely formatted to a file system that Windows cannot recognize. In other words, instead of repartitioning your drive in a way that preserved a Windows partition and created new partitions for Linux (options that are possible with the SUSE installer), it appears that the entire second drive was partitioned for Linux instead (or the partition process was started, but interrupted, which left the drive partially unconfigured). If that is the case, there may be an application to help you undo things, but I do not know that for sure.

Let me add that it is possible to install Linux on a partition on one disk of a multiple HDD system. I have done so myself, and I do not consider myself an expert in this area in any way. I would also recommend using more than 5GB unless space is tight. The distro alone will take ~2.5GB and as you add files and so forth, I suspect that you will quickly run out of room with 5GB. I hope that helps.

Hello

Thank you for your reply.
You are correct. I think that Although I did not choose to format the whole drive, something happened that it converted the whole thing. I am glad I can install on a separate drive other than C:

I wonder, Should I format the drive, create two separate partitions 1- Windows 2- Linux in these drive and then try again to install? Hoping that these would allow the installer to use that separate partition..

I had more that 5 Gigs space available. I could probably set a 30 gig( out of 160GB) for Linux. Would that sufice the need for space? I might be able to make it bigger, but depends of what I get reloaded into the drive.

Thanks for the help and ideas..

Daniel

You are welcome.

Your best bet (if you are sure the files on the second hard drive are damaged or lost) would be to use a "regular" partitioning tool to partition an appropriate portion of the drive as NTFS or FAT32 for Windows. For example, Seagate has their DiskWizard software, and if I had a Seagate drive, I would use that. I would leave the rest of the disk blank (30 GB would be fine), and let the SUSE partition tool "discover" the unused space and partition that. IMO, this method would leave the fewest chances for errors.

Hello

Here is an update:
Formated the drive using seagate's disk. I actually set 130 GB and 30 GB partitions.
** Now what is happening is that the DVD writer I use keeps saying

" The disk in Drive D is not formatted.
Do you want to format it now?"

It shows as reading any disk I put in, but does not show anything? lol

Do you have any idea what is going on?

Thanks

Daniel

Just a thought...

If you messed with the partitions, you may have altered the drive designations under Windows, and Drive D: may no longer be the DVD drive.

In Windows, right click "My Computer", select "Manage" and then open "Disk Management". It will show you all the drives, partitions and free space.

For a dual-boot system, I do all my partitioning here because of problems in the past with Windoze having issues with FAT partitions created under Linux. Create all your NTFS and VFAT partitions here, and let Linux have the rest of the free space when you install.

Timothy.

Hello again

Tried that switch D/E to I/J and still does not let me work with the drive.. I think system is thinking is a harddrive not a DVD drive.


Thanks

Daniel

I've seen DiskWizard spot a DVD drive and even a Zip Drive as something to format. If a device appears on an IDE bus, DiskWizard considers it fair game--even on systems where the HDDs are both SATA. Still, it is safe to ignore this, IMO. I did when it happened to me and everything ended up fine (of course, since my Zip Drive and DVD drive did not need formatting). Anyway, DiskWizard is just a tool. Have it do the partitioning you want (the reason you are using it in the first place) and then quit the application.

I used the diskWizard last might and fixed the hardrive. Now windows sees the drive and I have an additional partition not formated for Linux.
Still, My DVD is not working. In windows it shows as drive D;(also changed to J and no luck with it. I put in a CD or DVD or Windows 2000 disk and no luck. Does not show the item as searchable and when I try to get in it it says it needs to be formated. lol

Is it possible that installing Linux would mess the attributes or settings to the DVD-writer. Worse yet, I can't even use ghost to retrieve
my data because the DVD is not working.

What I also notice is that when I tried to reboot with the Windows CD in, the system did not offeer to boot from it.

Thanks for the help..

Daniel

As a guess, if you tried to "format" the DVD drive, DiskWizard may have changed your device's settings in your BIOS. It may have removed it as a bootable device also. Check your BIOS. Make sure the DVD drive is still enabled and it is still part of your boot sequence.

If that looks OK, go into the Device Manager (Start --> Control Panel --> Performance and Maintenance --> System --> Hardware (tab) --> Device Manager (button)). Click on the + next to the DVD/CD-ROM drives. It should then show your specific optical drive(s). Right clicking on it will give you a menu through which you can explore various options to repair the drivers, etc.

Hello

The DVD shows in the Bios setup and in booting sequence.
It shows in control panel and in device drivers.

I will let you know when I get home on the rest of your:
Device Manager (Start --> Control Panel --> Performance and Maintenance --> System --> Hardware (tab) --> Device Manager (button)). Click on the + next to the DVD/CD-ROM drives


Thank you

Daniel

Update:

Just found this link about some hardware that was damage while installing or using Madrake OS.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.o...UTF-8&safe=off

I gues there is a possibility that my optorite DD0405 DVD-writer could have been damage.. lol

This is really bad news I wonder if this is what hapened to me.

Thanks

Daniel

Unless I misunderstood your earlier posts, you "lost" your optical drive during disk formatting. I strongly doubt that this process harmed the drive in any way. I suspect it just changed some system parameters so that the changes need to be "undone" to get back to where they were.

That reminds me, you can also consider doing a "system restore" in XP.

hello

Well two things actually happened.
1- my second drive got wiped out and was not recognized in windows:
That got fix with the Seagate utility, Never tried to format the
optical drive.
2- My DVD is no longer in working order. It does not recognize bootable
disks, nor shows any CD/DVD that I put in the DVD drive (My computer).

Computer boots into Windows 2000 and seems ok, only problem is that I can not use the DVD drive to either restore/Install any of my programs.

Next step I will try to format C: drive and start from scratch and see if that would refresh all settings including DVD drives.. lol

Thank you

Daniel

You might try a repair install instead of starting over. You can use a Windows Me boot floppy (downloadable from the Web) and use it to enable the use of your DVD drive. Then, start an install and choose the repair option. It has been awhile since I have had to do this (a few years), but that is a general description of the method.