Can I repair HDD with Knoppix?

[FatBoy]

Hello gang. I'm brand new to Knoppix here. Kinda cool I must say. Anyway, I have a problem with my Dell Inspiron 8000 Laptop. There is currently no data on the drive as I have wiped it clean. My problem is that while trying to install a fresh version of XP I hit a snag. While I was formatting the drive, the formatter detected a disk problem of some kind and stopped. I tried the format process three times, each ending with the same error.

Can I repair the HDD using tools that are contained within Knoppix? Or can I place some type of disk repair tool on a floppy and run that tool from within Knoppix?

Thanks for the help. I did do a search, but I didn't find anything that met my needs.

Take care - Ride safe.

Fat Boy.

[CrashedAgain]

Are you intending to install Knoppix on this drive as well as XP?
If so, I suggest you partition it now since it is MT. Use windows fdisk. Make 4 partitions, one primary formatted NTFS for XP operating system. The rest of the disk then becomes 'extended partition'. Make three logical partitions on this, one about 3.5 gig for Knoppix O/S, one anout 0.5 gig for Knoppix swap. All the rest for data. Format all these partitions VFAT (fat32) for now. The Data partition will stay VFAT & can be shared by both Linux & XP, the other two will be changed to Linux formats during the Knoppix install. Chances are that your disk 'error' will be corrected by the partitioning process. Install XP first, then Knoppix & you will be able specify which partitions to put Knoppix on during the install process. Use 'ext3' for the Knoppix filesystem type, not ext2.

[FatBoy]

Are you intending to install Knoppix on this drive as well as XP?
If so, I suggest you partition it now since it is MT. Use windows fdisk. Make 4 partitions, one primary formatted NTFS for XP operating system. The rest of the disk then becomes 'extended partition'. Make three logical partitions on this, one about 3.5 gig for Knoppix O/S, one anout 0.5 gig for Knoppix swap. All the rest for data. Format all these partitions VFAT (fat32) for now. The Data partition will stay VFAT & can be shared by both Linux & XP, the other two will be changed to Linux formats during the Knoppix install. Chances are that your disk 'error' will be corrected by the partitioning process. Install XP first, then Knoppix & you will be able specify which partitions to put Knoppix on during the install process. Use 'ext3' for the Knoppix filesystem type, not ext2.

Thanks for the reply. I am only trying to fix my HD so that I may install XP again. Using Knoppix from the CD as my operating system, should I copy fdisk to floppy and try and repair the HD?

[mzilikazi]

Hello gang. I'm brand new to Knoppix here. Kinda cool I must say. Anyway, I have a problem with my Dell Inspiron 8000 Laptop. There is currently no data on the drive as I have wiped it clean. My problem is that while trying to install a fresh version of XP I hit a snag. While I was formatting the drive, the formatter detected a disk problem of some kind and stopped. I tried the format process three times, each ending with the same error.

Can I repair the HDD using tools that are contained within Knoppix? Or can I place some type of disk repair tool on a floppy and run that tool from within Knoppix?

Thanks for the help. I did do a search, but I didn't find anything that met my needs.

Take care - Ride safe.

Fat Boy.

I think CrashedAgain gave you some good advice for reinstalling windows but it looks like your XP partitioning utility (whatever it is called) is having problems. You can do a low-level format of the drive w/ your Knoppix disc like so:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda

Let me stress that you had better be sure that's the right drive!

In the past it was always a good idea to make windows parts w/ windows utilities and Linux parts w/ Linux utilities but I really don't know how true this is anymore. You can certainly partition the drive from Knoppix.

[FatBoy]

You can do a low-level format of the drive w/ your Knoppix disc like so:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda

Since I am brand new to Linux, I am assuming you want me to type that in the Konsole? Well, I tried that and I got this:

dd: opening `/dev/hda': Permission denied

What might I be doing wrong?

Also, does Knoppix have any disk utilities that can fix bad disks?

Thanks again.

[mzilikazi]

Try as root.
su