sluggo123

here is the latest sudo fdisk -l Looks better but no ME

Attached Images

Screenshot.jpg (26.6 KB, 6 views)

Bartender

Hi, sluggo -
I'm sorry we weren't able to get to the bottom of the odd hidden Me partition problems. It mighta been educational to figure out what was happening.

You've been patient about getting answers, and didn't rant and shake your fist when Me was deleted by mistake. I appreciate that.

Your fdisk -l looks just like it should for a HDD with nothing but Linux on it. I hope you enjoy using it!

PureEvilDan

What I would liked to have done is,
Using fdisk (or another disk partitioner), is delete all the partitions on the drive and then reinstall ME.
And then do another fdisk -l and see what happens then.

I'm glad, you have joined us in the world of Linux ;)

sluggo123

PureEvilDan
Good Idea. I can remove Ubuntu and try that. No problem. Will let you know what happened.
sluggo

sluggo123

Not so easy for me, it seems. This is what I saw when I tried to delete the partitions and start over. Pehaps would be best just to load ME back on and see what happens.

Attached Images

Screenshot.jpg (27.5 KB, 3 views)

sluggo123

PureEvilDan

Bartender

Installing Me should wipe out all signs of Ubuntu. Then you could try again. When installing Me, you might want to look for an option to make two partitions (C and D) then install Me to the C partition. That's what I did when I built a dual-boot from scratch. Ubuntu found the second partition and installed there.

sluggo123

Guys,
Nothing works as it should on this computer. Here is the screenshot just made a couple of hours ago. I reinstalled Windows ME as you can see, however, it did not remove Ubuntu and this seems to say that both ME and Ubuntu are installed. Yet I have no idea how to open ME. Formerly I would get a page asking me which OS I wanted to open. This apparently gives me no choice, I must somehow open it with a command line, er, I don't know just guessing.
sluggo

Attached Images

Screenshot.jpg (36.1 KB, 5 views)

PureEvilDan

Your fdisk looks better, now then...

Are you using a USB keyboard?
And can you press PAUSE while the bios is loading, (it will "pause" the bios loading).

If the answers are yes, no (in that order), I know what your problem is.

sluggo123

Dan,
actually I am not using a USB keyboard, I am using one that came with my old compaq before they sold out to HP. In most of my OS's, I can hold down the F8 key or the Delete key and it will open up up to the Bio and I can change which OS will come up there at least on the computer that I built which HDD will open so I can open either XP or W2K as they on each on their own HDD. I do not know how to get to the bio in Linux to make the changes but as Linux and Win ME are on the same HDD then it would not be the same.

But a long time ago I had a page open and ask me which OS that I wanted to run when they were both on the same HDD. I did another screenshot and it tells me something that I cannot beiieve. It says windows is over 400gig on a 80 gig HDD if I am reading right. OOPS i looked at the image, it is not the on that i saw so I blocked it. If I can get the same thing that came up I wil send it in a few minutes.
sluggo

Attached Images

Screenshot-HP_PAVILION Properties.png (30.1 KB, 6 views)

Bartender

sluggo -
Do you have a "Recovery CD" of some type from HP or do you have a genuine Windows ME CD?
Your fdisk -l screenshot is another in a long string of puzzling ones. I've read a thousand posts that all said popping a Windows CD in will wipe Linux and install just Windows. Never heard anyone say anything different. Your screnshot inidactes that the vfat partition is the bootable partition (the * mark) but you say it doesn't open.

Very weird!

bkubes

This is a confusing thread..
If you were to start over completely I would suggest that you download Gparted LiveCD, use that to erase all partitions, and not setup any filesystems.
Then I would install WinME, followed by Ubuntu; using the automatically resize partition option while installing ubuntu.

When you installed ubuntu the other times did you use that option?

sluggo123

I am using a recovery CD (2 system recovery cd's-the first one formats and fdisks the HDD, the second unzips the programs and puts them back on the CD. I will start the computer once more just to be sure that Ubuntu still boots up. There is no way that with my knowledge of Linux that I can open the W95 hda3 partition. Ubuntu opens everytime.

sluggo123

yes I tried the automatic resize partition option and it removed ME. I will download the Gparted LiveCD and erase all the partitions and load ME first and then Ubuntu.
Thanks
sluggo

PureEvilDan

Linux can read fat32 partitions fine, its NTFS it has problems with, I use Linux to update my ipod which is formatted for Windows. Its the other way round, windows can't read Linux partitions, unless you get a 3rd party tool.


Re-partitioning the drive with yet another tool will only make the hard drive worse. And if you read back, there is a problem with the WinME install and installing Ubuntu on top which is what was originally done, I think.

Bartender

Good morning, sluggo -
If you're willing to start over again I would have to second bkube's suggestion. Actually, it's one I made 3X already. Download/burn GPLCD. Not necessarily to do any partitioning with it, but as a telescope to view the parallel universe in which your HDD exists.

I want to see the way your recovery CD's set up the HDD. The Ubuntu LiveCD partitioner just saw an "unallocated" drive, which is exceedingly odd. GPLCD is a more powerful version of the same partitioner included with the Ubuntu LiveCD. It's a handy tool to have around for most any partitioning work. I already posted how to take a screenshot with it.
I've never burned a CD in Linux before, so I don't know if it'd be easier for you to burn it however you made your first Linux LiveCD or do it with Ubuntu before wiping the drive.

I would really like to see what GPLCD sees on your HDD after a fresh install of Me. If it reports the Windows HDD as "unallocated" like the Ubuntu LiveCD did, then the effort would be a waste of time. If it successfully reports the Windows partitions, then we might be getting somewhere.

sluggo123

From previous instructions before I read this one, I had created a GParted LiveCD and had started running it. After a time of expermintation I have finally arrived a box that says across the top "Create new Partition" and then it has a large white box extending across the gray (grey) box with a green frame around it. Under that Minimum Size 32 MB and Maximum Size 78160 MB. Beneath that on the left hand side

"Free Space Proceeding (MB)" presently indicated is 18 MB, but that can be changed with up and down arrows.

below that "New Size (MB)" now indicates 78142 MB and that too can be changed with up/down arrows.

underneath that I find "Free Space Following (MB) and presently indicated is "0" MB. also changed with up/down arrows.

Moving to the right hand side there are drop down lists.

Top one says "Create As" (in different partitions) with the present indication being "Primary" and of course on the drop down list is another two partitions one being "Extended Partition" and grayed out is "Logical Partition."

and under both left and right hand sides on the left a box with a check mark that says "Round to cylinders" which is probably correct. On the other side the choice of Cancel or Add.

Need your ideas here, I think I know some of the answers but am to much of a newbie here to be confident.

There are two different ideas presented by "you all"
(as we say in the deep South.) I started this before I read Dan's solution which seems to be simpler to me than this disk. Should I continue here with GParted LiveCD or back out and use the simpler method as presented by Dan?? That being:

fdisk /dev/hda
Command (m for help): d
Partition Number (1-5): n
(repeat till all partitions are deleted, check with "p")
Command (m for help): w

I think I tried that last evening and results were fdisk cannot find /dev/hda. But I am not sure, because I did this on my own and did not know what to select if I did arrive at the other points with d; n; p; m; w; . Dan clarified what I should do if I get past the first one. And once I think I did arrive at that point with all the selections and did not know how to proceed.
As you see I really am new at Linux, but I sure like what I see so far.
sluggo
Can we arrive at a consenus here? I am unsure of what to do. ??

bkubes

Along with Bartender

Preferably from a blank slate.
Just use what ever is the easiest for you to get to a clean slate. (No partitions?)

PureEvilDan

Boot from live cd.
in a console do
Replace /dev/hda with your hard drive name, this will take a while but will format your drive to factory settings. (aka blank, nothing on it)

Install WinME via cd, reboot in to Ubuntu & do sudo fdisk -l again.