On Thu, 24 Jun 2004 08:37 pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > On Thu, 24 Jun 2004 18:47:18 +1000 > > Johngibbons <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hello to all, > > > > A plea for guidance. I am a perennial beginner so it needs to be simple. > > I have an old laptop that I installed Xandros on, supposedly beside XP. > > I mucked up the installation and it wiped out XP. Then it would not talk > > to the internet. So I uninstalled following book directions and, lo!, it > > vanished but left me with a laptop whose screen says "no system > > installed". > > > > I have two possible steps in mind, either of which will do. First, to > > reinstall XP and then add a Linux distro as I was able to do with another > > distro before I stuffed up the Xandros installation. > > > > I have a boot floppy for XP but I get the "A:>\" thing and I do not know > > what to type after that to get it moving along. So this route is beyond > > me at the moment. > > > > Can someone help out with what I should type in? Please keeping it > > simple? > > > > The other route is to install Lindows 4 or Mandrake 10 exclusively. But > > when I try that all I get is the "no system installed" notice. Is there > > something I can type in that will get the installation CD to run? > > > > Any guidance gratefully appreciated. > > Assuming the windows partition is actually ok, and you have > merely killed the mbr, you should be able to do one of: > > 1. boot from windows cdrom and choose repair > 2. install linux and use grub to boot the windows partition > > Have you configured the bios to boot from cdrom? > If you can't boot from cdrom, you'll have to boot from floppy. > There are various ways to get a windows boot floppy or linux > boot floppy. > > > Matt
No bios shows up Matt, just a black screen with "no system installed". It ignores the presence of bootable CDs. It also gets me nowhere when I put in a boot floppy for XP, because that is when I get the "A:\" showing up. I tried a boot floppy for Mandrake 10. I got about 8 or 10 lines of indeciferable stuff followed by the invitation to put in a CD and press any key. I did but nothing happened except a repeat of the lines of nonsence followed by the same invitation to insert a CD. John. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
