[SLUG] Erase hardrive.
Thanks to all who offered suggestions. Some of the advice was technically over my head but It looks like the issue is solved in a way I did not expect. I found a CD rescue disk which I had forgotten about and never tried to use, thinking it would be technically beyond me. I ran it out of curiosity and found QTParted. I used it to wipe all partitions and their contents. Then tried an install of Kubuntu. No problems. I then ventured into an automatix install. Again no problem. I have since rebooted it a few times without any difficulty. Thanks again for the friendly contributions. John. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] Erase hardrive.
I have an old box I try out different versions of distros on. I recently stuffed it up in some way I do not understand, although I suspect it was when I tried to install the latest Knoppix onto my drive (install not just run). Now with only a couple of exceptions every distro I try to install either will not even begin, or will install part way then crash, or install fully but refuse to open. Even Windows will not install. I have had someone check my bios out and it is OK. It appears as though Knoppix or something else may have left something on the drive that is mucking it all up. Is there some way I can totally wipe the drive clean and start again from fresh? John. And thanks to those who sent advice concerning my ongoing issue with a flash drive. I will soon try it all out and get back to you. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Erase hardrive.
well you could low-level format it. this always used to have to be done but is rare these days. first low-level format, partition, high level format eg. ext3. however it will definitely wipe everything off the disk. you should be able pick up one off the net for free. i've used these many times. Ben john gibbons wrote: I have an old box I try out different versions of distros on. I recently stuffed it up in some way I do not understand, although I suspect it was when I tried to install the latest Knoppix onto my drive (install not just run). Now with only a couple of exceptions every distro I try to install either will not even begin, or will install part way then crash, or install fully but refuse to open. Even Windows will not install. I have had someone check my bios out and it is OK. It appears as though Knoppix or something else may have left something on the drive that is mucking it all up. Is there some way I can totally wipe the drive clean and start again from fresh? John. And thanks to those who sent advice concerning my ongoing issue with a flash drive. I will soon try it all out and get back to you. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Erase hardrive.
On Sat, 2006-05-06 at 12:52 +1000, Ben Donohue wrote: well you could low-level format it. this always used to have to be done but is rare these days. first low-level format, partition, high level format eg. ext3. however it will definitely wipe everything off the disk. you should be able pick up one off the net for free. i've used these many times. Ben Another option is to try using toms bootdisk or the knoppix livecd and fdisk to rebuild the partition tables and work up from there. -- James Purser Producer/Presenter - Linux Australia Update http://james.k-sit.com - My Blog http://k-sit.com - My IT Consultancy http://localfoss.org - LA Update Podcast, LUG Roundup and more Skype: purserj1977 SIP: [EMAIL PROTECTED] signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Erase hardrive.
I actually think it is unlikely to be the harddrive. As long as when you install a new distro you are deleting any existing partitions and you choose to check for bad blocks when creating the new partition filesystems. you are getting a clean disk. All IDE disks have onboard firmware/hardware that totally abstracts from the physical disk issues. My guess is that you probably have marginal memory which seems to cause the most woes. I would suggest using memtest86+ or somesuch (knoppix has one in the boot menu) and let it run for a while. On 5/6/06, john gibbons [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have an old box I try out different versions of distros on. I recently stuffed it up in some way I do not understand, although I suspect it was when I tried to install the latest Knoppix onto my drive (install not just run). Now with only a couple of exceptions every distro I try to install either will not even begin, or will install part way then crash, or install fully but refuse to open. Even Windows will not install. I have had someone check my bios out and it is OK. It appears as though Knoppix or something else may have left something on the drive that is mucking it all up. Is there some way I can totally wipe the drive clean and start again from fresh? John. And thanks to those who sent advice concerning my ongoing issue with a flash drive. I will soon try it all out and get back to you. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- Regards, Martin Martin Visser -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Erase hardrive.
if it is an IDE HDD it could also be the BIOS. check the BIOS as some HDDs can be set to NORMAL, LBA or LARGE. sometimes an incorrect setting here can lead to woes. Ben john gibbons wrote: I have an old box I try out different versions of distros on. I recently stuffed it up in some way I do not understand, although I suspect it was when I tried to install the latest Knoppix onto my drive (install not just run). Now with only a couple of exceptions every distro I try to install either will not even begin, or will install part way then crash, or install fully but refuse to open. Even Windows will not install. I have had someone check my bios out and it is OK. It appears as though Knoppix or something else may have left something on the drive that is mucking it all up. Is there some way I can totally wipe the drive clean and start again from fresh? John. And thanks to those who sent advice concerning my ongoing issue with a flash drive. I will soon try it all out and get back to you. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
