HD Install :: No hard disc to install onto

I think what I did was try a Hard Disc instal without making a Linux partition first. In any case the Hard Drive is not being 'seen' by DSL, it seems to be listed under /mnt as hd whereas it used to come up as hda1.

What have I done? How to I reformat my hard drive?

You can use cfdisk to partition:
cfdisk /dev/hda

From there it's a matter of how you want to install DSL. See the wiki or search the forums. Frugal install is easier to keep updated, and requires a 55 MB partition for the image and another for /home and MyDSL (and swap is a good idea).

Regardless, the install scripts will format. You just have to set your partitions and direct the scripts to use the partitions you want to use.

I have tried cfdisk, but dsl reports that there is no disc. I may have damaged the Hard Drive, but I can hear it turning, I will try cfdisk again and report.

Try:
cfdisk -z /dev/hda

That ignores the partition table altogether. If that doesn't work, there are a couple more things to try.

I managed to get the thing to work. But part of the hard drive is corrupted. It seems possible that I will be able to do something with it. I managed to get DSL up and running, but the rest of the hard drive is not accessible. I will run it again and see.

Is there a way I can try to mend the hard drive?

Thanks for the help.

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