Hard Drive

[Doc]

I need some help.

First, and this may fix my problem, but I need a way to get fdisk and basically a 98 or whatever boot disk so I can create some new partitions.

I bought my computer from a friend who built it, and he got the parts from his school. The hard drive was bought at Wal-Mart. When I tried to reformat for windows, it wouldn't let me and said that I could only do a clean install of the OS, not reformat. It claimed that my NTFS is also something called SFS and I don't know how to get around it to create new partitions.

Any ideas?

 

[Mirage]

Are you formatting IN Windows? Or during the installation?

Have you tried formatting pre-Windows in the setup?

 

[Mr_Snipes]

Are you trying to install windows on the computer, or are you just trying to create some new partitions on a hard drive with windows on it alrealy?

 

[Doc]

Yeah, like I said when I tried to wipe the drive for a clean Windows intall, it would't let me wipe it. I could only re-install the OS without formatting.

I already have Windows, but I need a partition that I can install Linux to.

 

[Mr_Snipes]

Which OS are you trying to install?

 

[Mirage]

I believe he is trying to install Linux on a partition on this hard drive but he is unable to partition it.

Is that right?

Is this hard drive your current MAIN hard drive that you have Windows on or is it a spare? If you don't have anything on it that you care about, try connecting it to your computer as a slave hard drive, and then formatting it from within Windows.

 

[Thermal]

I need some help.

First, and this may fix my problem, but I need a way to get fdisk and basically a 98 or whatever boot disk so I can create some new partitions.

I bought my computer from a friend who built it, and he got the parts from his school. The hard drive was bought at Wal-Mart. When I tried to reformat for windows, it wouldn't let me and said that I could only do a clean install of the OS, not reformat. It claimed that my NTFS is also something called SFS and I don't know how to get around it to create new partitions.

Any ideas?

Sometimes when NTFS gets trashed, it'll report a partition ID that matches the Secure File System (SFS). You may want get a linux boot up disk and run fdisk on it. Linux fdisk will let you have more control over the type of partitions you want to create and delete. As for finding a windows 98 bootdisk, you could find one at www.bootdisk.com.

 

[Doc]

Is this hard drive your current MAIN hard drive that you have Windows on or is it a spare? If you don't have anything on it that you care about, try connecting it to your computer as a slave hard drive, and then formatting it from within Windows.

I only have one, 160 gig hard drive and no spares to use that I know of. I also forgot to say that even Partition Magic and another major partition program refused to format or even partiton. It won't even error check.

Where can I get a Linux boot disk?

 

[Thermal]

You can try tomsrtbt linux floppy, or you could download the minimum gentoo install cd. Both have fdisk on it, but the latter would probably be the easiest to get running if you have a cd burner.

You use fdisk a bit different from the dos version.

To tell fdisk to partition the first IDE hard drive, you'd type something like:
fdisk /dev/hda

The [B]p[/B] command will display all existing partitions.
The [B]d[/B] command will delete a partition (you'll be asked to give the number for the partition to delete).
The [B]n[/B] command will allow you to create a partition.
The [B]m[/B] command will display help.
The [B]t[/B] command will let you select the type of partion.
The [B]w[/B] command will commit the changes.

 

[Doc]

Bu what if the hard drive itself won't let me format/partition it? I belive that it is actually a secure file ssytem and not a lgitch b ecause the hard drive is only a few months old.