Quote Originally Posted by sandman112
but i just cant view any files on it, or even access it from knoppix

if tried going to disks admin and it shows the HD in there, just unavailable, ive tried formating it from there ... nothing, drive still shows inactive or unavailable or somehting like that

.....

PS its a slave drive in an IDE port ... main drive works fine HDA1

First of all, you want to get the terms right. The main drive is not hda1, the main drive is hda, the first partition on the main drive (which is what you want) is hda1. This concept is pretty important in Linux.

I would strongly sugget that you don't partition the drive under Knoppix at all. It is not clear to me what it's current status is, although it sounds like it may not be partitioned.

First of all, just to be safe, I would make sure that the hdb drive is properly configured as a slave drive, not as a master. Linux expects the hardware to be set up properly; some versions of windows tolerate mucked up configurations.

If you are comfortable that you have one master and one slave drive, the the next question is what do you want out on the second drive. If you want one or more FAT partitions than I would create then from Windows or even DOS. If you want to install Knoppix, I will not be a part of that blasphemy. If you want to install Debian, then I would suggest Debian etch, and doing a net-install as long as you have a high speed connection. A properly made Debian install CD should offer you a number of options about how to configure the disks. The simplest way to deal with space selection, if the primary drive is full, might be to simply delete any partitions that are on the slave drive from windows or even DOS (I'm assuming you are more comfortable with those partitioning tools than Linux partitioning tools, I know I am). Then when Debian gives you you space choices let it use all available space on hdb. Allow it to partition it as it sees fit, it will create a reasonable sized swap partition and use the rest as a Linux partition.

Quote Originally Posted by sandman112
...debian just sits at a blue screen for ever...
It would be helpful here to know at just what point you sit at this blue screen. Is the CD booting at all? Which version of the Debian installer is it? Are you sure that you have the master and slave settings correct?