boot help :(

**heyradio** · 05-23-2006, 01:42 AM

Hey guys - I realize that this has probably been answered somewhere but I'm really in a rush and haven't yet found an answer. My harddrive crashed recently - luckily I still had a warranty w/Dell- but of course they just threw a new harrdrive at the problem instead of trying to help me fix it. (I hope none of you ever have to deal w/ Dell tech support - ever.) Anyway, I have to return the old one pretty soon, and my Knoppix 4.0.2 CD came today. I put the old harddrive in and booted off the CD. I pushed enter, as it told me it would then boot. However - all I saw after that was a penguin on the screen, and nothing else. I tried pushing keys, but no text appeared. I turned it off after a bit and tried re-booting again, but this time the main Linux/ knoppix screen had trouble even appearing.. (My graphics card is working fine b/c everything is fine when I put in the new harddrive). Anyway - I'm probably just missing something completley obvious, or maybe I'm just screwed... but yeah. I got the idea of trying to get stuff off it from this FAQ ( http://www.shockfamily.net/cedric/knoppix/#hd ).

I have to send them back the old one by the 30th so i'd appreciate any help.

Thanks guys.. and again, sorry - I'm really new to this program.

**heyradio** · 05-23-2006, 01:46 AM

Also: I waited about 10 minutes before turning it off with the penguin. I was assuming some bar would pop up showing that it was loading.. but nothing.

And for more background.. when I try using the harddrive, it says "primary harddrive not found." it's probably completley screwed, but i did get it to turn on twice for about 10 minutes about a week ago. (no luck since.. I was connecting my external the second time to back everything up but it crashed again.)

**heyradio** · 05-23-2006, 02:15 AM

also, when i type testcd where it says boot: - it says
could not find kernal img

**ckamin** · 05-24-2006, 02:06 AM

Try cheatcode dma. It may also appear that your disk is corrupt. If the dma cheatcode does not fix it, then you might have purchased a bad disk. I usually obtain the iso via Bittorrent and then burn it at slow speed to ensure compatibility. I have heard that some of the commercially made disks are terrible, but never purchased one and can't say from experience.

If your windows machine is working again, why not just install it into the box and recover your files in Windows.