D4l2kn1x0n

Hello, I wanted to introduce myself and I have a problem I would like to enquire about!

I have a question to ask after I pulled the trigger, I have brought the Offical Linux magaizne wich has a free copy of mandrakelinux 10.1 offical ,
me and a friend were about to install it.

so we put the disc into his laptop first and installed as instructed and to the correct config. So far so good...

when at the mandrake desktop I was wondering where to find all the personal files from the original windows are? Also I was wanting to have a dual boot with windows and mandrake linux. Acoording to the front of the DVD case it is possible to run along side windows!

i tried to find the [boot loader] not knowing mandrake or linux at all, we couldnt find it... and also not knowing if thats the right way to go about getting separate bootups.

If anyone could help us at all on this matter it would be very much appreciated! Also, I have no proir knowledge of linux so simple terms would be helpful

Thank you very much!

Skie

Open a Terminal window and type "cat /etc/fstab" and paste the results here. Also, do you see "LILO" or "GRUB" just as the laptop is booting up? It'll be shown at the very begining and be there for only a moment. Let me know which one you see as well as the result of the above command and we'll see how that laptop is setup so that we can figure out how to set you up for dual boot.

Just to explain the above command, the "cat" command is similar to the DOS command "type". It just prints the contents of a file to the screen. the /etc/fstab (File System TABle - aka fstab) file contains all information about hard drive partitions and other mountable/useable devices (floppies, USB devices, etc). If the Windows partition isn't listed in that file, we'll need to add it. By default, Mandrake should be able to add any Windows partitions to that file without you having to touch it. As long as that's the case, you just need to know how to access it.

D4l2kn1x0n

well its not on this computer its on his laptop so its gonna be a manual job I will try and be as precise as possible,

CMD Results:

/dev/hda1 / ext3 noatime 1 1
/dev/hda6 /home ext3 noatime 1 2
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0022,user,iocharset=utf8,noauto,ro,exec,users 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda5 swap swap defaults 0 0

Startup Results:
[Lilo]

Thanks for your help and fast reply .

Skie

Ok, one last thing to confirm something for me. Although I'm pretty sure what you guys did.

Open a terminal window again, then type "su" and hit enter. It'll ask you for a password. Type in the root (admin) password. At this point, type either "cfdisk /dev/hda" or "fdisk /dev/hda". cfdisk is prefered, but if you don't have it, then you'll need to use fdisk.

[size=5]DO NOT USE ANY OF THE FEATURES/COMMANDS OR YOU MIGHT DESTROY THE DATA ON THE HARD DRIVE. FOLLOW EXACTLY WHAT i TELL YOU AND NOTHING ELSE. IF YOU START MESSING AROUND WITH EITHER OF THESE COMMANDS, YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK./SIZE]

cfdisk:

This will give you a graphical print out of all your partitions on the hard drive. Copy the results you see. Basically, all I need to see is the following: Name and FS Type.

At this point, use the left or right cursor keys to scroll over to "Quit" in the menu at the bottom and hit enter to exit.

fdisk:

If you have to use fdisk, you won't have a graphical menu to help you. Everything is done using various commands. Just type "p" and hit enter and you should have a list of your partitions. Copy the following fields for me: Device and System.

Once you have done that, just type "q" and hit enter to exit.

Either command will give you the same info, however cfdisk is easier to use, but fdisk is a bit more mature and perhaps even a bit more powerful.

So, in my case, I have the following:

hda1 NTFS
hda2 W95 FAT32 (LBA)

In what you gave me earlier, you have hda1, hda5 and hda6. But no hda2 - 4. Usually, Linux partitions don't start at hda1 if you have Windows already installed. I'm suspecting that you erased the hard drive and repartitioned it from scratch instead of resizing the Windows partition. By giving me the output of the above, I'll know for sure.

If you did delete Windows, then you've basically lost any files or data that you may have had on that laptop. There really isn't anything that can be done in this case. Do you remember what you did while installing Mandrake? Specifically when it asked you how you want to partition the hard drive.

D4l2kn1x0n

Ok, firstly, thank you for helping me!

When I was installing mandrake, I was going to select the partition drive of "free windows space" but i wanted to just check custom settings first! when I did that that I realised that I couldn't go back to the previous menu. So I cleared the info and selected auto, which split it into 3 parts. The largest partition was the one I used and I mounted it to /home or something.

as for the results:-

Name Flags Part type FS type [Label] Size (MB)
hda1 Boot Primary Linux ext3 6284.12
hda5 Logical Linux swap 1151.54
hda6 Logical Linux ext3 52575.99

I fear that I may have lost all my hard drive which kinda sucks so I appreciate this help!

Edit: When I was installing it spent about 10-15 minutes formatting the drive! Is this normal or may it have been deleting my old hard drive in that time? : (

Skie

The info you just gave me confirmed that you deleted your Windows partition. And if it took 15 minutes to format the drive, it was either blanking out the drive or it was checking for physical errors. I'm not sure which one it does. Either way, once other files have been written to the drive, your old files have been over written.

There's really not much that can be done unless you want to pay thousands of dollars to have a computer forensics lab do the recovery for you. I'm sorry your first experience with Linux came to this end. If you still wish to keep Linux, I'd suggest installing Windows again and delete all partitions, then create 1 for Windows and leave the remaining space as unpartitioned and available for Linux. This time around, play close attention to where it will create its own partitions.

D4l2kn1x0n

ok so now im just with a fresh copy of mandrake only and no data ... i have just a few more smaller questions to ask.

when i go to shutdown the computer it says ok, on all then stays idle untill I manualy switch it off.

Is it set as defult to act like an win 95 comp with the style [Your computer is now safe to switch off] etc insted of automatic.

also i have a 64mb usb memory stick wich i need to transfer files from this pc to the laptop and its not reconized we have tryed a usb mouse and nothing so I presume its something to so with usb drivers or a config issue..

and thirdly i have a windows xp disc and wish to now reinstall that allong side mandrake with a duel boot can you give me a short guide with the parition config... and what to do from mandrake as fresh ?

Skie

The shutdown usually depends on the computer. I've seen some that shut down and others that just sit there. I'm not familiar with the shutdown scripts to know if you could improve this.

For the USB devices, after you plug them in, open a Terminal window, then type "su" and enter the root password. Then type "dmesg" and see if there are any lines pertaining to that particular USB device. If there is anything, it'll be at among the last few lines. If you see something, then your computer recognizes the device.

If you see that your memory stick is supported, then type: "pico /etc/fstab" and enter the following line at the end of the file:

Then type CTRL+O to save and CTRL+X to exit. If you don't have pico, then you'll have to use "vi /etc/fstab". Be real careful with vi as it takes some getting used to before you can use it easily. If you need to use vi, follow these steps. Scroll down to the bottom of the file, then hit "END" if the last line has text on it. Then hit "INSERT" and you'll see the word "INSERT" at the lower left corner. Press the right cursor key once and then hit Enter. Type the line above and then hit "ESC". At this point, type ":w" (colon symbol and w) and hit Enter to save, then ":q" to quit. If you screwed up, hit ESC a few times, then ":q!" to exit without saving. (if you think that's hard, wait till you figure out how to do copy/paste )

Once you've added the above, take out the memory stick and put it back in and if it's able to be auto mounted, you'll see it in the /mnt directory. Just type "cd /mnt" and then "ls". You should see a directory with "USB" in the name. If not, let me know.

When you re-install Windows, the easiest thing to do will be to install Windows and completely delete Linux. As I said in my previous post, make a partition of the size that you want for Windows and leave the remaining for Linux as unpartitioned. Once Windows is installed, install Linux. It's always easier to install Windows first as Windows won't give you the option of dual booting with Linux. In fact, unless you have a rescue disk, you won't be able to get into Linux at all. However, if installed properly, Linux will allow you to dual boot with Windows or just about any other OS available.

batty_professor

I would just like to add. Since this is a laptop there are extra drivers specific to the applications for sound, display, network, USB etc. on the extra CD's that came with the unit. These will need to be installed after windoze is installed. You will also find the proprietary windows version will likely not allow for adjusting partition sizes, so when re-installing Mandrake be sure to select the "use free space" option. Also when selecting packages, you should have some general selections of Desktop computer, internet station, etc. , there should also be a selection called "portable" you should select this option for it should find packages specific to laptop applications. Hope this helpful.

(Portable should get you packages that will help with the power-down, USB etc. issues.)