beating a dead horse?

[Rick G.]

Scenario: I want to install Knoppix on my hard drive as only OS. After several unsuccessful attempts and much wasted time, I’ve discovered that this piece of s--- will not accept any other OS software (tried different ones including 2 M$ programs) for various reasons even after erasing hard drive w/erasing software.
QUESTION: Will getting a new hard drive solve this problem, or am I beating a dead horse?

[chris-harry]

what type of hard drive is it?

because, you might only need to just partion the drive correctly...

[Rick G.]

Thank you c-h for response;


Item Value
Description Disk drive
Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model ST340810A
Bytes/Sector 512
Media Loaded Yes
Media Type Fixed hard disk
Partitions 2
SCSI Bus 0
SCSI Logical Unit 0
SCSI Port 0
SCSI Target ID 0
Sectors/Track 63
Size 37.27 GB (40,015,503,360 bytes)
Total Cylinders 5,169
Total Sectors 78,155,280
Total Tracks 1,240,560
Tracks/Cylinder 240
Partition Disk #0, Partition #0
Partition Size 4.41 GB (4,729,987,584 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset 32,256 bytes
Partition Disk #0, Partition #1
Partition Size 32.85 GB (35,277,742,080 bytes)
Partition Starting Offset 4,730,019,840 bytes

This is hard drive info. Where can I get instructions on how to partition correctly.

[CrashedAgain]

Running from Knoppix CD, type 'sudo cfdisk' in a console shell & post the resulting output. It is highly unlikely that your HD will not allow a change of OS.
"...several unsuccessful attempts..."--What have you tried and what were the problems encountered?

[Rick G.]

I entered cfdisk 2.11u and putzing around here getting nowhere. What's next?

[CrashedAgain]

I entered cfdisk 2.11u and putzing around here getting nowhere. What's next?

just enter 'sudo cfdisk'

'sudo' makes you root user (administrator level user) for one command

'cfdisk' is the program name

cfdisk should detect your HD & display information about all of the partitions it finds.

[Rick G.]

Thanks Crashed Again for your concern; I went to sudo cfdisk and it’s the same as cfdisk 2.11u and I can’t accomplish anything there………………. Anyway just before I came to the thread, I booted up & went to desktop\hard drive icon\properties\device and shut off read only. Then sudo knoppix-installer, which eventually ran me into qtparted and I’m screwing around with this and no clue of what I’m doing ……………………………..HELP!

[chris-harry]

ok... because the document section is down for repair... i'll tell you how i partion me disk... using QTparted...

ok, once its open... all you really want is to make 2 or 3 partions... now... because your drive is an old drive, make a 10Mb partion, and place it at the top of the list... this stops that 1000Cylider error or what ever its called... very helpful partion too....

then make a second partion, this partion is going to be your swap drive... some of the people on this forum say place the swap drive closest to the middle (not passed the 10Mb one), others say have it at the end... me opinion... i really dont care where it goes... now a good size for a swap partion, either 225Mb-500Mb... or double what you have with ram... if you have more then 500Mb of ram... then dont worry about a big swap drive.

To make that partion a swap partion, you have to right hand click on that partion, and godown to format... then a new form will pop up, and in the partion type, click on it and go down to swap partion... then click ok

Next, get the remaining free space, and make it into a linux partion...once again, right hand click on it and in the partion type choose ext3, or linux partion... an ext3 partion i think is the best...

After all that... click on file... and goto commit... then you can quit the program after all is done...



to tell you the truth i usually dont use QTParted... i use a program i got with me Debian DVD, and its more dos'ed based, but it has alot more freedom, but might be a bit harder because you wont be able to see the partions (figure of speech)...

[chris-harry]

then its pritty much self explanitory from there on... just click, and select, and click... it will go threw "do you want a knoppix or debian system" (i choose debian)... etc...

btw... have fun

[Rick G.]

Thanks c-h for your help today,

Just returned to thread; too late now……just smashed the s--- out of that other computer with a baseball bat………I feel a whole lot better now………….. Just got a little angry I guess