John is 100% correct. The one thing I would offer, based on my having single-handedly screwed up probably 100 or more installs, is that you should walk away from it for a day or so if you can afford to. Try hard to force yourself to stay away from the box for at least 24 hours.
Every time I had something like this happen and I waited, I usually realized later on that there was something else that I did that was causing the problem, (ex. a hardware setting in the BIOS that got changed at the same time as the other change I made that was the original suspect). Also, cfdisk is a powerful partitioning tool, but I believe that the documentation also includes the disclaimer that it is not a good I idea to substitute it (esp. the filesystem) for the partitioning tools that come with the OS you are trying to install. At any rate, I have made thousands of mistakes installing Linux and have never permanently damaged my box. If I can help, let me know. Good luck, Eric --- John Pearson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Thu, Feb 24, 2000 at 03:03:52PM -0600, ktb wrote > > kmself@ix.netcom.com wrote: > > > > > > On Thu, Feb 24, 2000 at 10:03:13AM -0600, ktb > wrote: > > > > "Allan M. Wind" wrote: > > > > > > > > > > On 2000-02-24 09:40:21, ktb wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > I've pulled a real bone head deal it > seems. I decided to partition the > > > > > > HD on my new system so that I could put > both Windows 98 and Slink on > > > > > > it. I tried using fdisk under "dos" but > it wouldn't let me delete the > > > > > > current partition so I used the Slink > installation disk and cfdisk to > > > > > > partition my HD. I cut the disk in half > and added one partition "Win95 > > > > > > FAT32 (LBA)" which was what it was before > except that it took up the > > > > > > whole disk. I marked it as bootable. I > then attempted to install W98 > > > > > > and got the message "no HD found." I went > into the bios setup and the > > > > > > disk can't be detected. I switched it to > "auto" but no improvement. I > > > > > > used the Slink installation cd again and > found I get the message "FATAL > > > > > > ERROR: Cannot read disk drive Press any > key to exit fdisk." I have no > > > > > > installation disks for this HD. It is the > HD that came with the > > > > > > system. What the heck do I do now? > > > > > > > > > > You did use something to resize that win98 > partition with besides > > > > > cfdisk, right? > > > > > > > > No I didn't. > > > > > > Ouch. > > > > > > Did you have anything on the disk initially, or > not? The way I read > > > your post (portions deleted), you didn't. > > > > I had stuff on the disk but I meant to wipe it > clean. What my problem > > seems to be coming down to is my computer will no > longer auto detect my > > HD's. I had one HD (primary) with Windows 98 and > (secondary) with > > Slink. Now neither of my HD's are detected. I > went into the bios > > settings and selected "drive auto detect" and it > shows nothing is > > there. I manually set them to "auto" and still > nothing is seen. I just > > don't understand how creating a new partition > valid in the eyes of > > windows or not prevents my bios from detecting > that there are HD's > > there? > > It won't. If the BIOS doesn't see your drive then > you need to fix > that before any fdisk or partition-recovery software > can work on it. > > Likely culprits are incorrect jumpers, missing power > cables, and > bad or misfitted ribbon cables. > > If you've had your case open, re-check that all your > cables are > seated correctly and verify that you don't have any > that are > "off-by-one-row-of-pins". Verify that the problem > drive and any > others on the same cable have power cables > connected, and all > pins are correctly seated (some drives will operate > after a > fashion with no power cable, presumably running off > power sucked > through the ribbon cable; sometimes when you insert > a power > cable the pin on the drive pushes its mate out of > the power > connector shell, rather than seating itself > comfortably in the > socket). If you have a spare ribbon cable, try > replacing the one > you're using now (if all else fails, get a known > good one and do > that anyway). > > If you've re-cabled or re-installed your drives, > verify the > jumper settings and try using the problem drive as a > single > master: some drives have problems acting as the > master for some > slaves, and vice versa. > > HTH, > > > John P. > -- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > "Oh - I - you know - my job is to fear everything." > - Bill Gates in Denmark > > > -- > Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe > [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com
