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| Thread ID: 59783 | 2005-07-12 14:47:00 | help setting up a slave drive | haha_rich (8514) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 371621 | 2005-07-12 14:47:00 | hello all, here's my problem: I'm insterested in learning about linux and have been doing some research. I've reached the point where I want to install linux to an old hard drive and use it as a slave on my new computer. My old hard drive was running windows 95 but i got a bit overzelus when clearing it out and deleted some files that windows needs to use to boot. I was planning on installing the old hard drive as a slave to my new one running windows xp and format it, partion it and install linux. I've set my old drive to slave by removing the jumpers and checked my new drive is set for master. I've plugged everything in correctly and tried to boot. Teh problem I'm having is that I only seem to be able to boot into the corrupt old hard drive, getting error messages as it won't boot all the way through to win 95. I've tried getting into the bios and playing around with the settings but don't really know what I'm up to. Anyone got any ideas where I may be going wrong? Thanks in advance, Rich |
haha_rich (8514) | ||
| 371622 | 2005-07-12 22:24:00 | There are two way to go. 1) Set the XP drive to master and the old drive to slave with the jumpers. 2) Set both to cable select, and have the XP drive at the end of the IDE cable, the old drive on the plug half way along. When you boot from the linux CD just make sure you select the old hard drive to format. |
Rob99 (151) | ||
| 371623 | 2005-07-12 23:21:00 | Dont worry that your ex-95 HDD wont boot. Simply install it as a second drive, i personally would use the jumpers to ensure it was slave, not cable select. Your Linux install will take care of making the system boot from the correct files. It will install a boot loader such as grub which on boot will give you the choice of windowsXP on HDa, or Linux on HDb As you install Linux, it will look at your setup, see what HDDs, partitions, and file structures you have. Allow it to repartition your second drive, and install your Linux system there. Your XP system will show up as a NTFS file system on your main drive. '95, which you wish to overwrite will show as a FAT32 system, which will get nuked and replaced with atleast 3 partitions using *nix friendly file systems. |
personthingy (1670) | ||
| 371624 | 2005-07-13 00:12:00 | I would recomend selecting the option to place the boot loader on a floppy. | Rob99 (151) | ||
| 371625 | 2005-07-13 15:26:00 | thats great, thanks for all your help. I'll probably start by just trying the linux install with both drives attached by booting from floppy as I've no jumpers for the old drive. I did format the old drive and try installing linux without the new one attached. Took 1 1/2 hours to install and when I came to reboot said no os installed! never mind, will try again tonight and let you know how it goes. thanks again for advice, Rich |
haha_rich (8514) | ||
| 371626 | 2005-07-13 21:16:00 | I've set my old drive to slave by removing the jumpers and checked my new drive is set for master. I've plugged everything in correctly and tried to boot. Teh problem I'm having is that I only seem to be able to boot into the corrupt old hard drive We had this problem last week, trying to format an old harddrive I found at course. Didin't matter how we jumpered the setup (the technicians master primary used XP, master secondary used CD-R). Didn't matter how the slave harddrive was set up (jumpers, cable select etc, slave to CD-R, etc etc), the computer always booted to it. I know it was an issue with techs comp, but don't know what it was. I too would be interested in hearing what may have caused this... |
Myth (110) | ||
| 371627 | 2005-07-19 17:22:00 | Ok, major problems arose. My master boot record was corrupted, I couldn't get the computer to recognise my new hard drive, I've re-formatted the drive (losing all my data) and have no valid xp installation disk. Not good, looks like I'll be shelling out for XP now. | haha_rich (8514) | ||
| 371628 | 2005-07-19 21:26:00 | If your computer came with XP you should have a disk or recovery partitian, unless it was pirated. I take it you didnt install the boot loader to a floppy as suggested, did you ask for any help, as there are plenty of Linux buffs here that probally would have sorted the boot loader for you. Even with a formatted drive you should be able to retrieve your data, use GetDataBack from runtime.org. |
Rob99 (151) | ||
| 371629 | 2005-07-19 21:27:00 | Ok, major problems arose . My master boot record was corrupted, I couldn't get the computer to recognise my new hard drive, I've re-formatted the drive (losing all my data) and have no valid xp installation disk . Not good, looks like I'll be shelling out for XP now . It appalls me that you can get a computer with "preinstalled" XP and no disk . I assume you paid for it, so the shop should have given you a XP disk, of course there are many who don't :groan: OK, hopefully some good can come out of this by helping others to learn from your mistakes . When you ran the instalation disk, it should have shown a partition whose file system done was in NTFS? This would have been XP . To reformat or remove this partition was to lose everything XP :( The corruption of your MBR becomes irrelevant when theres no OS to boot to . I probably should have recomended the dual caddy approach, where you have the HDDs in removable caddys and swap them depending on which system we want to try today . As for the "new" ex95 HDD, does it go at all? It certainly seemed to refuse to go in your current machine . A live CD is possably a better idea if you just want to try this Linux stuff out . I installed an XP system on a friends computer a couple of weeks ago, and whoahh . . Compared to installing Mepis, Ubuntu, FC3, Mandrake, or SusE, that was so hard . There must have been 20 reboots by the time i got the Antivirus and all the other windows essentuals going! :eek: Id be very tempted to run a live CD such as Mepis, and if you like it, install that . Apart from being able to play the most "up-to-date" . WMV files, there wont be much you'd miss . At this stage it would seem your HDD is nothing but a blank disk ready to go . Before you reinstall XP, it could be a good time to entertain the curious mind! Of course i am biased, Mepis is my OS of choice! |
personthingy (1670) | ||
| 371630 | 2005-07-19 21:34:00 | Even with a formatted drive you should be able to retrieve your data, use GetDataBack from runtime . org . Of course its probably best to consider Robs data recovery idea before a further expererments . :D |
personthingy (1670) | ||
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