formating tools?
Forum: HD Install
Topic: formating tools?
started by: meltdown_override
Posted by meltdown_override on July 10 2006,02:37
I just screwed my self! lol I was using a frugal install and thought it would be fun to try and do a basic harddrive intall. well I was in linux and right clicked on the utility to do the install(was'nt even thinking about the MBR) OK I clicked and nothing apparently happend. So I rebooted and nothing happen still. Ok I thought I reinserted the boot floppy(one that I formated and syséd from windows big mistake) This boot floppy does not give me a format,fdisk,or edit commands. Needless to say the c:\ drive is toast. I don't have any winblows cds and can't access the usb in this state. As luck would have it I do have a copy of linux on the e: drive.(btw I had three one primary drive(c:) d:music e:data) well on the e: drive(hda6) I have in a folder isolinux linux24 and minirt24.gz and the dsl.iso file. what can I do to fix this? Im still somewhat of a linux noob/dork
Posted by kerry on July 10 2006,03:02
i'm not clear about what your trying to do. i think your saying you can't boot from cd so you use a boot floppy? are you trying to format and start over? can you just be a little more clear on what you need help on.
Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on July 10 2006,03:06
If you want to format to fat/32 you could use a Win98 bootdisk for the format tool.You can use mke2fs for ext2 in linux.
However if you do need to use a floppy, I suggest for you to look up "floppy" in the wiki.
Posted by meltdown_override on July 10 2006,15:28
ok Im past the first part of this little adventure. The c:\ drive has been formatted with a linux/dos util I found on the net(forgot where) Now what used to be my D: drive(mp3s storage) is now my c: drive(I have no idea how that happened) As luck would have it I have the dsl .iso file on the c:\drive. Is there a dos only extraction utility online somewhere that would fit on a floppy? thats the only way I can transfer files now. so far everything I can find requires a win32 filesystem
Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on July 12 2006,07:31
I guess you could use some kind of iso extract tool..or you could repartition and format to ext2.. saving the iso to the other partition, depends on how you want to go from here.
I think you could also boot from the iso directly (i.e. with grub), but I haven't tried that before.
Posted by a1x on July 16 2006,16:54
i have a stupid q. when run cfdisk in dsl it says an invalid partition and i was wondering how to run it huh 
. and how can i see my partitions under linux ?
Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on July 16 2006,17:04
You can "see" your partitions by using the mount.app tool on the bottom right corner of your screen.-or-
You could do something like
cd /mnt
ls -d hd* sd*
Posted by brianw on July 16 2006,18:40
if sudo cfdisk is not working try:sudo fdisk -l
this should list how your hard drive is partitioned (if that is what you are looking for).
If you are looking for your mounted partitions open the System Stats tool under the System menu and it offers alot of detail about your system.
To view what partitions you can mount the best tool is the Mount Tool, as ^thehastsrule^ said, and it can also be started under the System menu.
Posted by kerry on July 16 2006,19:30
you can grab a copy of gparted live cd. it is a graphical partion tool to work with partions, it is alot easier to use.-> < http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php >