Results 1 to 9 of 9

Thread: Blank HD Installation

  1. #1
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    massachusetts
    Posts
    9

    Blank HD Installation

    Hi,
    Our company gave away all its old computers, and I came home with a Dell Pentium II with 350 MHz and 128M of Ram. The hard disc was wiped clean...no Windows system, no partitions, no Fat32, no nothing...and so I thought it would be a perfect time to set up a Windows-free Linux machine.
    I am running Knoppix 3.8.1 from the CD drive right now. The knoppix-installer looks straightforward enough, BUT...I have no idea how large the hard disc is, and before trying anything I thought I'd better ask, Is there a way to find out? If it's under 2 Gigs should I attempt the Poor Man's Installation? In which case I may need someone to hold my hand, because I am a complete newbie at this.
    Thanks for your advice! --Bill

  2. #2
    Senior Member registered user
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Belgrade, YU
    Posts
    334
    Click on terminal icon, then type su+Enter, then cfdisk and try to make new partition, you will see the size of hdd.

  3. #3
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    massachusetts
    Posts
    9
    Quote Originally Posted by tdjokic
    Click on terminal icon, then type su+Enter, then cfdisk and try to make new partition, you will see the size of hdd.
    Thanks for the reply. I did that and got

    FATAL ERROR: Cannot open disk drive

    Now what? I think Knoppix can at least see the hdd, because the installer was able to detect that there was no partition. --Bill

  4. #4
    Senior Member registered user
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Belgrade, YU
    Posts
    334
    I don't know what to say. Can you try with some Windows boot floppy or CD to make same test?

  5. #5
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    massachusetts
    Posts
    9
    Quote Originally Posted by tdjokic
    I don't know what to say. Can you try with some Windows boot floppy or CD to make same test?
    I have a Windows 98 emergency floppy. When I boot up with it, the A:\ prompt blinks mindlessly. Maybe there's a DOS command that can communicate with the HDD and tell me its size?

    The reason I haven't blundered ahead and just run the knoppix-installer is that I heard partitions can be hard to get rid of, and I didn't want to screw up the hard disc permanently.

    --Bill

  6. #6
    Senior Member registered user
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Belgrade, YU
    Posts
    334
    fdisk ?

  7. #7
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Colorado Springs, CO, USA
    Posts
    1
    Bill:

    CHKDSK is the command line if the hard disk is formatted. fdisk will let for format the disk (and will let you erase any linux partitions later) but I don't know that it shows the hard drive size unless you partition the hard drive.

    But why bother. During boot enter the Dell motherboard setup (F2 on my Dells). This should tell you the hard drive size.

    Of just go for it. As I said, fdisk can be used to remove any partitions that you create, even linux partitions. And if you don't have fdisk on your emergency boot disk, you can boot using the Win98 CD, choose boot with CD support (not install) and it will put fdisk on the ram disk it creates.

    chuck

  8. #8
    Member registered user
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Basel, Switzerland
    Posts
    31
    boot with the w98 floppy

    enter fdisk at the promt
    follow the dialog to produce at least one primary partition which might be maximum 2gb of size.
    if it does create it, you can make the a extended partition unig the max possible size and some logical drive in it as the dialog says.
    it report you then what size the partitions became.

    remamber: those parts are still not formated to anything unless you use someting like format from the w98 floppy.

    otherwise: open the comp and try to take out the hd and read what it says on the top of it.

  9. #9
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    massachusetts
    Posts
    9
    > boot with the w98 floppy
    ...snip...

    Thank you, thanks to all.

    I'm making progress, but there is always some darn thing...which I'll ask about in an new thread

    --Bill

Similar Threads

  1. Booting = Blank
    By Sceazy in forum Hardware & Booting
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 02-10-2007, 08:30 PM
  2. blank screen
    By theagemaway in forum General Support
    Replies: 11
    Last Post: 07-04-2006, 09:07 PM
  3. Blank Screen
    By Fish in forum Hardware & Booting
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 03-18-2004, 10:37 PM
  4. Probleme nach installation!! - Problems after installation!!
    By Mr.Redhat in forum Hdd Install / Debian / Apt
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 01-11-2004, 02:46 PM
  5. Leave a few MB of the CD blank?
    By fasaxc in forum Ideas
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 12-21-2003, 12:58 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  


TP-Link TL-SG105 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Metal Desktop Network Switch picture

TP-Link TL-SG105 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Metal Desktop Network Switch

$19.99



NETGEAR GS308EP Essential Series 8-Port Gigabit PoE+ Unmanaged Switch picture

NETGEAR GS308EP Essential Series 8-Port Gigabit PoE+ Unmanaged Switch

$49.99



Cisco WS-C3650-12X48UR-L 48-Port Stackable Layer 3 8x10G SFP+ Port Switch picture

Cisco WS-C3650-12X48UR-L 48-Port Stackable Layer 3 8x10G SFP+ Port Switch

$129.99



TP-Link TL-SG1048 48-Port Gigabit Rackmount Switch New Factory Sealed picture

TP-Link TL-SG1048 48-Port Gigabit Rackmount Switch New Factory Sealed

$199.99



10-Port Gigabit PoE Network Switch with 8 PoE+ Ports with 2 Combo SFP Slots 125W picture

10-Port Gigabit PoE Network Switch with 8 PoE+ Ports with 2 Combo SFP Slots 125W

$39.99



TP-Link TL-SG2210P 10-Port Gigabit Smart Switch w/ 8-Port PoE+ NO AC SKU 25597 picture

TP-Link TL-SG2210P 10-Port Gigabit Smart Switch w/ 8-Port PoE+ NO AC SKU 25597

$36.98



Arista DCS-7050SX-64-R 48P 10GbE SFP+ 4P 40GbE QSFP+ RA Switch picture

Arista DCS-7050SX-64-R 48P 10GbE SFP+ 4P 40GbE QSFP+ RA Switch

$115.00



Arista DCS-7010T-48-R 48P 1GbE 4P 10GbE SFP+ RA Switch with rack mounts picture

Arista DCS-7010T-48-R 48P 1GbE 4P 10GbE SFP+ RA Switch with rack mounts

$69.00



Linksys LGS328MPC 24-Port Managed Gigabit PoE+ Switch with 4 10G SFP+ Uplinks picture

Linksys LGS328MPC 24-Port Managed Gigabit PoE+ Switch with 4 10G SFP+ Uplinks

$224.95



5Ports Gigabit Network Switch w/ 4 PoE+ Ports Total 52W each port 30W Plug&Play picture

5Ports Gigabit Network Switch w/ 4 PoE+ Ports Total 52W each port 30W Plug&Play

$31.99