linux issue

canaan

I'm reformating a PC that had linux redhat on it. I ran fdisk and formatted the hard drive with no problems.
However, when I'm installing Win 2000, after the first reboot I get a blank screen with "LI" on top of it and it hangs.

Would anybody know a way around this.

Thank you in advance

Ricka182

You could always try a low-level format. That will bring the disk back to factory level.

RussS

Ummm - MS fdisk is kind of hopeless in my opinion. I use System Commander to do my disk preparation for just about everything these days.

Ricka182

True, M$ is worthless.....a good 3rd party program is Partition Magic 8.0.

skaeight

Redhat's install program will partion and format your drive for you. It sounds like you may have problem with your bootloader (grub, or lilo). The config file probably wasn't written properly and it doesn't know where your kernel is.

Disley

I cant remember how LILO displays its errors now, but the number of letters displayed tells you where the problem lies (but i cant remember them exactly ><)

Are you just removing RedHat completely to put Win2k onto it? If so you should be able to partition the drives just by putting the installation CD in and moving through it (i hardly ever bother using fdisk for partitioning, at least not with any distros that include their own partitioning functions)

xevious

try fdisk /mbr to clean the master boot record.

mwgood

According to the book "Linux Administration..." this normally means that the entire boot partition doesn't exist in the first 1024 cylinders - which means having to repartition and reinstall.

rcoop

It looks to be the boot loader within the master boot record (MBR) that is either damaged or has just been removed without replacing the original boot strap of the primary partition.

If you do not want to dual boot with another OS, then you should just need to repair the master boot record of the primary hard disk.

If you have a DOS/Win95/98 boot disk with FDISK on it xevious' recommendation of FDISK /mbr will most likely fix the problem.

Also, if you want to do it using Win2000/XP, just boot using the installation CD and go into recovery console. Once at the recovery console command prompt, use the FIXMBR command and that should work as well. If you are still having problems you might also use recovery console's FIXBOOT command to write a new partition boot sector on the system partition (system drive).

If you are planning to dual boot between multiple OSes I also would recommend using the third-party product System Commander.

Take Care,
rcoop

canaan

Thanks guys for all your replies. They were all informative.

As xevious and rcoop recommended, "Fdisk /mbr" seemed to have fixed the problem.

Thanks again.
canaan

infosecboy

That is because the old boot info was still resided in the MBR. You can try fdisk /mbr to restore the standard MBR. I normally use AEFDSK and it works 98% of the time. Do a GOOGLE search to download AEFDSK.

Ghent

Fdisks debug will fix anything short of a physically destoryed disk. Check out this link to see how to use it. http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=174

Ghent

Oops, accidentally subimtted duplicates.