I am new to linux. I followed instruction to use the GParted to free up space to make logical drives for installation. GParted returned with an error, and b/c of screen saver, the error dialog was blank. Then I found out the file system of my C drive is recognized as "unknown". Luckily all my personal stuff is located in the original D: drive towards the very end of the hard drive. I have all these unknown spaces at the front.

1) How can I get the system to recognize my windows XP again? I imagine you just need to do some minor fixes .. most data is stil in tact.

2) If I discard my system files in CD, any things to look out for so that I don't lose my personal stuff in "D". BTW, GParted still recognizes D as NTFS. This is the only recognizable drive.

Thanks.

*disappointed*

Hey,

Don't be disappointed! Everyone on this forum has horror stories, but perseverance has given us all happy endings where toasting MS is actually not a problem!

Insert your windows XP cd and reinstall windows, only when it goes to format your drive tell it to leave the file system intact and it will only write to the windows directory and leave all your other programs intact.

Then try another partitioning programme or install a small capacity or second hand hard drive and use that to install your linux distros. If you're new to linux you are going to want to check out what the other distros are doing before you find the one like best.

But perserve and you'll enjoy the rewards of the finest OS on the planet.

Regards

Mick

I personally have never hosed a Windows install messing with Linux, but I have absolutely no doubt its quite possible. When I first started trying Linux, I just overwrote my Windows partition, then realized it was way more technical than I thought, and was gonna take some work to learn. Reinstalled Windows, and bought a cheap second drive to hold my Linux installation. In the end, thats the easiest and safest thing to do. I had a 40gig hard drive for Linux installs, then picked up a 80gig on clearance for $35. Its held several different Linux distros with no prob.

Recently, I smashed Windows and let Ubuntu reside on my 250gig main drive.

Stick with it..

IGF