[Tfug] windows to Linux

[Liz_Ravenwood at beaerospace.com]

Thanks Don.

I'm probably confused with partitions vs. actual disks.  I figured since 
the bios showed me D: that it was a partition.  Maybe I actually had a 
physical D: drive in there?

It's an HP Compaq and my housemate said that it's not running wih the 
fastest chip on the block.

It's never been the same since my cat fell in the swimming pool and tried 
to climb on top of it while she was still wet and I was working with it on 
my lap.
Modem went out, and I've been using a silly ass usb wireless deal since.

serving tray might just be the best use if not a cat warmer.

Respectfully,
Liz, Data Base Architect/Developer,
Methods Engineering





Bexley Hall <bexley401 at yahoo.com> 
Sent by: <tfug-bounces at tfug.org>
09/23/2009 01:50 PM
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Tucson Free Unix Group <tfug at tfug.org>


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Subject
Re: [Tfug] windows to Linux






Hi Liz,

> I actually deleted the partition after
> I got the "no disk found" error, so your
> hypothesis still might be correct.

> I'm thinking it's gone because I no longer see it in bios.

<shrug>  Dunno.  None of the BIOS'es on my machines list
partition information -- just the physical disks themselves.
I.e., I have to explicitly run a utility to examine the MBR
in order to see what is actually on the drive(s)

> I didn't get back to the laptop last
> night after deleting the D partition and doing a scan disk
> on C.  But theoretically, if I reboot from the CD the install 
> should work, right?

Again, I have no specific info on the system you are trying to
install...

The code on the CD can contain exactly the same (piss poor)
error/status message -- with the same amount of entropy!
I.e., if the code on the CD looks at the disk and sees
no "free (unpartitioned) space", it *could* complain with
a trite "no disk found" message -- instead of "Hi, I found
these N drives.  Which one do you want me to install onto?"
Followed by a "Gee, disk X has the following partition table.
Do you want to modify it (which means possibly wiping out an
existing installation and all of the data with it)?  If not,
you can go back and pick another disk to install onto..."

This is how NetBSD's install works.  You can *see* what the code
thinks is happening instead of relying on an "idiot light" that
tells you very little (unambiguously).

If you can examine the MBR, you should see provisions for four
"partitions" (I realize that term is highly overloaded  :< ).
If *none* of them are in use (look at the "partition type"
field -- an eight bit value usually displayed in HEX), then
you know the disk is "empty".

OTOH, if *any* of them are in use, then you have to look at
the details of each used partition to determine how much of the
disk is actually used.  Typically, windows grabs one partition
though some machines also set aside a partition for diagnostics
or extended BIOS facilities, etc.

You can probably do this from a shell prompt on a live CD
(pick your favorite flavor).  Or, boot off a "DOS" floppy and
run FDISK.EXE from there (I forget the command line options...
try "FDISK /?" for help)

You can also boot from a live cd and examine dmesg (or the linux
equivalent thereof) to see what it reports.

There are also tools that will wipe the entire disk for you
so you are sure that there is nothing there (presumably, the
installer will be smart enough to install a default MBR so
the machine *can* boot thereafter)

You can also convert the laptop into a portable SERVING TRAY
for those times when you have guests over and don't want them
leaving their plates on your furniture!  :>

(BTW, what make/model laptop is it, just out of curiosity)

HTH,
--don


 

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