Knoppix Hard Drive Format compatibility

[Phr0stbyt3]

My computer (AMDXP 2100+, WD HDD, R8500LE, 512RAM) recently had what I think is a low level boot virus, as when I try to boot it says invalid boot.ini file, and then says hal.dll is missing! I have knoppix 3.8.1 and am using this atm to backup important files on the computer. I would rpefer not to remove all data from the disc but if it has to be that then so be it.

I was just wondering, are HDD formats done in knoppix compatible to load Win98 and WinXP on?

Also, is there an alternative to this, as in could I restore boot.ini and hal.dll through knoppix without deleting data?

Note: I only have the backup of WinXP, as the original was lost in a recent move along with lots of other CDs that I don't know how they went missing. Anyway this backup I found out I cannot boot form, but luckily I had purchased Win98SE with boot floppy and I install that to get a boot and then install WinXP over the top of it, hence I need a solution that does not involve the recovery console from the WinXP boot CD!

Cheers!

[UnderScore]

Was your windows partition formatted as FAT32 or was it formatted with NTFS. If it is FAT32 then you should have no problem reading & writing to that disk from Knoppix. if it was NTFS then you can only read. You can not write to a NTFS disk partition with Knoppix.

[Phr0stbyt3]

Yes it was FAT32. I found that I can read it (copy and paste folders into usb drive etc.) but I havent tried much else. What I want to do is copy important folders/documents/etc. (which I have done) and now I want to format the hard drive. If I format this hard drive using the knoppix CD (assuming it has fdisk or similar) will it still be able to load windows on it or is it somehow a different format? I know its a silly question as a format should just be a format but I want to make sure. I dont have a problem using linux but family do!

[Phr0stbyt3]

Anyone?

[Harry Kuhman]

I know its a silly question as a format should just be a format

[Phr0stbyt3]

Anyway I tried formatting it as follows:

I got into the root using 'su'

'fdisk /dev/hda1'
'd' to delete partition 1
'n' to create a new partition, 'p' to make it a primary partition. I used default sizes assuming it is the whole disc.
't' to change type to 'c' [W95 FAT32 (LBA)], then 'w' to write...

Problem is it says something about an error: 22. And that it cannot read the new table and that the new table will be read on reboot, I tried rebooting both the konsole and the PC to nary avail!

Help on re-formatting the hard drive please someone? anyone?

[fingers99]

try mkdosfs /dev/hda1 which should at least create something Windows is happy to format.

[Phr0stbyt3]

That didn't work, it said it;s trying to create too large a file system or something, keep in mind the hard drive is 80GB which I'd warrant is alot more than DOS knows!

[Harry Kuhman]

...hard drive is 80GB which I'd warrant is alot more than DOS knows!

DOS (at least the version that lives under Win98se) can see 80 gig and larger partitions just fine.