REDhat Linux Laptop trouble

[leedspoint]

I am a complete idiot. By mistake, I ran fdisk using Dos6.2 with a boot from Floppy....thats not the problem...the problem is there was a fully running Redhat Linux OS on the HD already....taking up like 97% of the HD. Now on bootup it only comes up with the Ram count and two single letters displayed: "LI". Please tell me what the heck does that mean and how do I format to be able to use with windows????? HELP

Please bump me if you think I am an idiot....just to show you care

UPDATE,,,,,FDISK/MBR DID THE TRICK, WORKS GOOD NOW.....

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< I am a complete idiot. By mistake, I ran fdisk using Dos6.2 with a boot from Floppy....thats not the problem...the problem is there was a fully running Redhat Linux OS on the HD already....taking up like 97% of the HD. Now on bootup it only comes up with the Ram count and two single letters displayed: &quot;LI&quot;. Please tell me what the heck does that mean and how do I format to be able to use with windows????? HELP

Please bump me if you think I am an idiot....just to show you care >>



fdisk it again and reinstall windows. Formatting the MBR might work too. Thats either fdisk /mbr or format /mbr (or something similar).

 

[leedspoint]

Thanks for the reply. I fdisked it a second time and it only formats what is left over on the HD, which is like one MB. it reads the same thing. I will try the MBR suggestion as well and maybe try to lowlevel format.

LEEDSPOINT IS THE BIRHTPLACE OF THE NEW JERSEY DEVIL....>

 

[erikistired]

do you have a redhat cd? if so boot off of it, go into the install as far as using the fdisk program and use that to remove the partitions. then exit out (writing to the partition table) and boot off your dos diskette. you can then add a full dos partition and format away. i've had trouble removing linux partitions before using ms' fdisk.

good luck with it.

~erik

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< do you have a redhat cd? if so boot off of it, go into the install as far as using the fdisk program and use that to remove the partitions. then exit out (writing to the partition table) and boot off your dos diskette. you can then add a full dos partition and format away. i've had trouble removing linux partitions before using ms' fdisk.

good luck with it.

~erik >>



I have had no problems deleting linux, freebsd, or openbsd partitions using ms' fdisk. So it can work, you just have to select delete non-fat partition or whatever it is.

 

[TonyRic]

run &quot;fdisk /mbr&quot; and that will take care of the &quot;LI&quot;

 

[leedspoint]

I dont have the cdrom that the OS came from, in fact the laptop doesnt have a cdrom. I can boot off a floppy though. Will low level formatting the HD work.

What is MBR?????? how do i do that?

 

[erikistired]

for some reason i've had instances where the linux partitions will show up as an extended partition that can't be deleted. anyway, just something i've seen, maybe it's just me, or maybe i'm thinking of NT. either way...

~erik

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< for some reason i've had instances where the linux partitions will show up as an extended partition that can't be deleted. anyway, just something i've seen, maybe it's just me, or maybe i'm thinking of NT. either way...

~erik >>



I could just be lucky

 

[Agamar]

Yes, occasionally I have had that problem also. I always just started another linux install and wiped it out.

 

[leedspoint]

I wish I could, but there is no cdrom. the computer is bare bones system, to be used for auto tuning, its just a pig thinkpad with Mono screen, but its all i need to tune a car and run simple programs if i can get it to dump LINUX.

I am doing the dos install for the third time, It recomended that i not reinstall so i deleted all partitions and drives..................then the reistall took place.

 

[leedspoint]

I TRIED the dos install for the third time, It recomended that i not reinstall so i BOOTED TO floppy, dumped all partitions and drives..................then the reistall took place.

I NOW HAVE a good HD b/c of all the suggestions.............you people are the BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TonyRic]

The MBR is the &quot;Master Boot Record&quot;, Linux needs to install it's Boot Loader (In this case Lilo) to the MBR if the OS is not on /dev/hda1 (or whatever your FIRST Hard Drive partition is), if you choose not to install to the MBR AND you install to say /dev/hda2 or so, you will need to make a LILO Floppy (Or other boot floppy if using a different boot loader) or use some 3rd party boot loader like Boot Magic from Partition Magic or OS/2's Boot Manager (this is the best of all worlds if you have a copy of OS/2).

So with this, if you use DOS's fdisk, you must use the /mbr option to clean out the MBR or LILO cannot find the Partition with the boot menu (The /etc/lilo.conf file) and halts at &quot;LI&quot;, and as you saw you could not even boot to DOS from the HD.

MS-DOS not being able to see the Linux Extended partition is not just limited to the Linux Extended partition, MS-DOS had this limitation with Extended partitions made by Windows NT 4 and OS/2 Extended Partitions as well. This is a MS-DOS Limit not a problem with the other OS'

Hope this wasn't too much to confuse.

 

[TonyRic]

The MBR is the &quot;Master Boot Record&quot;, Linux needs to install it's Boot Loader (In this case Lilo) to the MBR if the OS is not on /dev/hda1 (or whatever your FIRST Hard Drive partition is), if you choose not to install to the MBR AND you install to say /dev/hda2 or so, you will need to make a LILO Floppy (Or other boot floppy if using a different boot loader) or use some 3rd party boot loader like Boot Magic from Partition Magic or OS/2's Boot Manager (this is the best of all worlds if you have a copy of OS/2).

So with this, if you use DOS's fdisk, you must use the /mbr option to clean out the MBR or LILO cannot find the Partition with the boot menu (The /etc/lilo.conf file) and halts at &quot;LI&quot;, and as you saw you could not even boot to DOS from the HD.

MS-DOS not being able to see the Linux Extended partition is not just limited to the Linux Extended partition, MS-DOS had this limitation with Extended partitions made by Windows NT 4 and OS/2 Extended Partitions as well. This is a MS-DOS Limit not a problem with the other OS'

Hope this wasn't too much to confuse.

 

[justint]

boot off a floppy with fdisk.exe on it.


type fdisk /mbr

 

[leedspoint]

fdisk/mbr was the key.....thanks a million