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Thread ID: 35950 2003-07-26 09:56:00 Linux Mandrake 9.1 awoof (1092) Press F1
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163037 2003-07-26 09:56:00 I loaded Linux Mandrake 9.1 on to a 1gb hard drive, and it wont run on my machine,i cant get it to boot at all.No graphics at all.
So know i want to reformat the hard drive and put windows back on it
Can someone tell me how can i do it .Thanks

Alan
awoof (1092)
163038 2003-07-26 10:31:00 What do you mean no graphics at all?
Do you at least have a command line?
You could try:
startx

that'll get you a GUI if so.

Otherwise, you're gonna want a 98 boot disk unless you're installing Win2K or WinXP, coz they can remove partitions from within the installer!

Boot off the Disk and run Fdisk /mbr
This will clear the master boot record of the Linux boot loader
Then run Fdisk
You want to Remove Non-DOS partition, and then create a Primary Partition (Using all available space). Keep in mind there's likely to be 3 or so partitions to remove.

From there, begin as normal :-)
Chilling_Silently (228)
163039 2003-07-26 11:26:00 I have not installed Mandrake 9.1 but I think you would be lucky to fit it onto 1Gbyte with a GUI?? JohnD (509)
163040 2003-07-27 04:03:00 Did it actually install? I'm sure you would not get a GUI. :D

Does the DOS/Win FDISK not wipe the Linux partitions? I have heard that there can be problems with bugs in the MS FDISK, but I've never had any (I don't switch back :D). If you can get a prompt ("#", probably), in Linux (from breaking out of the installation perhaps? ...), do dd if = /dev/zero of = /dev/hda bs=1024 count=72 That should make it look like a nice clean disk to MS. :D
Graham L (2)
163041 2003-07-27 05:05:00 Boot from a BootDisk (Win98)

select DOS command-line

Type FDisk -/mbr

Remove BootDisk

Reboot

Windows should now be back! :-)

At least, that was my experience ...
PJ Mahan (4228)
163042 2003-07-27 07:15:00 i did what Chilling_Silently susgested and it worked perfectly

Thanks to all

Alan
awoof (1092)
163043 2003-07-28 00:03:00 I agree that its not likely that you would have installed X or a Window Manager in that small amount of space.

I struggled with Redhat 7.x to install it on 900MB. I rarely get a good setup done in under 1.2Gigs with Redhat 8/9 now :-)

FDisk does kill the linux partitions
FDisk /mbr clears the boot loader
Then when you're in FDisk, if you remove the Non-DOS partitions, its just like you're removing an NTFS partition, seeing as Win98 doesnt like NTFS ;-)

Good to hear it went smoothly then :-)

Cheers


Chill.
Chilling_Silently (228)
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