howdy -- my comments are mixed in below with yours...........
you said:
I have a backup of my bootsector, I think i created that with norton, but
when i boot from that it also asks for the location of command.com, and i've
tried first booting from win98 bootdisc, and then using the 'backup of
bootsector' disc, but it doesn't find any files on the disc...
me sayz:
hmmm, that's odd now that i think about it.... if you boot from a win98 disk,
shouldn't command.com be on that disk? it's been so long since i have booted win
from a floppy..... but that seems really strange. do you have a norton rescue disk?
that should have partition info on it which could be restored.
you said:
I think i'll try to boot from my lnx-mdk 7.1 install disc, and look at
discdrake again, although i'm pretty sure that when i entered that window, the
whole graphical display of the hard-drive was filled with the recommended
sizes of /, swap and /home (together filling the hard-drive) but i doubt
wether this will help at all, as i don't recall any diagnostic or repair tools
included there...
me sayz:
i don't know if there are diagnostic or repair tools there either....
didn't someone on the list write that they used linux fdisk to look at their
partitions and that "refreshed" the partition data & brought it back? try that. i
don't know much about linux fdisk yet, but i was looking at it the other day and i see
that it will let you change the type of partition. if the former win partition still
exist, perhapse you simply need to start fdisk and change that partition to fat32 but
not format it or anything. maybe that would fix it?? i'm just theorizing here --
understand i have never done this.
you said:
I never actually answered 'yes' to any such action, infact the install
system froze just as i was going to make that choice.
me sayz:
again, i theorize, but this would lead me to hope that your information is still on
the drive, just the partition table is lost.
you said:
So in effect i think it shouldn't have but it did somehow totally change
the information ABOUT the partitions (which i gather is in the partition
table), not the partitions themselves. (this i think is exemplified by the fact
that running fdisk told me that the windows partition is a non-DOS
partition, but that it does exist, and obviously has the same dimensions as i had
left it with.)
me sayz:
yes, the partition table records what the partition type is & where it ends & begins,
at least that is my understanding.
you said:
Are there perhaps any tools which i can use to just tell the computer that
my windows partition is infact a FAT32 partition, just by editing the
partition table) - this excluding fdisk, as i had no luck there...
me sayz:
probably, tho i don't know what they might be. =( partition magic might be able to
do it (i don't have PM, but hear very good things about it) i'm sorry i can't tell
you anything that will save you here, just tossing a bunch of theorys at you. =)
i've been lucky & never had to recover from something like this, so i have no first
hand experience.
i still kinda think using linux fdisk to "tell" the computer that partition is a fat32
system might work. is this what you tried?
i also wonder about using windows fdisk with the switch to repair the master boot
record..... maybe that would convince it that you have a fat32 drive? this last
suggestion is a big big big SWAG (scientific wild ass guess). please don't try that
unless you are really brave or unless someone smarter than me thinks it might work. =)
i hope your problem works out...
i am leaving soon & will not be back to the list until monday.
i hope to see a post from you telling us how you fixed it. =)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> hi creaktop....
>
> i'm still a linux newbie, but fairly experienced with windows....
>
> umm... it sounds to me like you have blown away your windows
> partitions.
> i've never used the "install to free space on Windows" and i'm not sure
> exactly what that does. is Linux installed on your computer and
> actually working? you said you had 7.1 on the box before. if so, try
running
> diskdrake as this will give an easy to understand graphic view of what
the
> partitons on your drive(s) look like. linux is red, free space is
> white, fat is blue i think..... if it doesn't show any fat drives, then
you
> may have totally killed it.
>
> do you have any backups of your partition tables? diskdrake will allow
> you to do that -- tho i have never used that function so i couldn't say
> how well it works.
>
> ummm.... i use norton disk doctor also.... if that doesn't see any
> drives to work on.... then, i would say you partition table is damanged
or
> changed... at any point before your crash & burn did you answer 'yes'
> to anything asking you if you were sure you wanted to write a partition
> table or format a drive? best case, i think your data may still be
there
> on the drive, physically there... but the partition table is gone. can
> it be repaired? i'm not too sure.
>
> wish i had better news for you....
> but there are lots of other folks here who are up on windows, so don't
> give up hope quite yet.
>
> again, my best idea right now -- use diskdrake to see what it says.
> if you have a big white chunck that says "free space" i bet that use to
> be your windows partition.
>
>
>
> Adrian Smith
> 'de telepone dude
> Telecom Dept.
> x 7042
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
> >>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 11:34:31 AM 11/24/00 >>>
> Ok, this is what happened...
>
> I was running Windows, and bought Linux-Mandrake 7.2.
> I installed it with the custom option, as i had already installed 7.1 a
> couple of times. when it got to the point to decide how to install it
> on my
> harddrive, i chose the option "install to free space on Windows", which
> i
> thought would create the necessary partitions, and 'steal' the space
> from
> windows. Beforehand i had defragmented windows.
> when i clicked into the "install to free space on Windows" option, the
> system froze.(AI could move the mouse, but the system would not respond
> to the
> mouse or the keyboard navigation of the options... I proceeded to press
> <ctrl><alt><del>.
> the system rebooted, but instead of booting normally it asked for me to
> enter the location of my command.com file, i entred
> c:\windows\command.com but
> to no avail. When i booted with my win 98 boot disc it told me that it
> had
> not found a valid FAT16 or FAT32 partition on my drive, and that i
> should
> use fdisk to make one. i used fdisk and it told me that there was the
> windows
> partition (i could tell because of the size), but that it was a non-DOS
> partition. I tried using norton disc doctor, but that didn't help
> because it
> could not see a drive to examine...
> I desperately need help, because i've got important stuff on the
> windows
> partition...
> I started Lnx-mdk 7.2 setup again, just to see what the partitions
> looked
> like etc. but the 'only' option of how to install was to use all the
> space
> (ie. no option to use the space that was not being used by windows -
> win does
> not use all the space on my harddrive; the rest is empty)
> I know this is not exactly a linux question, but my guess is that some
> of
> you will also know something about windows.
>
> Thanx a lot...
>
> creaktop
>
> --
> Sent through GMX FreeMail - http://www.gmx.net
>
>
>
>
--
Sent through GMX FreeMail - http://www.gmx.net
Adrian Smith
'de telepone dude
Telecom Dept.
x 7042
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
