Wow! My Linux system survived being repartitioned!

[Electrode]

Here's my story:

After a week nonstop, I have been unable to get my 802.11b PCMCIA card working in Linux on my laptop. I wanted to check if the card worked at all by installing, *sigh*, Windows.

So I booted from my slackware 8.1 install CD, ran cfdisk, and deleted my ext3 and swap partitions, and put an NTFS partition in its place, then tried to install various flavors of Windows NT and 2000, to no avail. The last one I tried, NT 4.0 Server, caused the laptop to freeze hard, so I couldn't even turn it off. I was forced to pull the plug and wait for the battery to die.

I never managed to get Windows installed, so I stuck in my Slackware 8.1 CD to reinstall Linux. I booted, ran cfdisk, deleted the NTFS partition, and made swap and ext3 partitions, in the same places and sizes as they were before.

Just on a whim, I decided to try to mount the ext3 partition without formatting it. Much to my suprise, all of the data from the old Linux system was still there, intact! So, I took out the install CD and rebooted. It booted right up, as if the past evening of repartitioning and failed Windows installs had never happened. Didn't even have to reinstalled LILO!

Cool, I guess...

 

[Nighthawk69]

Very nice!

Got another HDD or PC to try your 802.11b card in? I've got mine working in my desktop system with a PCI-PCMCIA adapter (ORiNOCO PCMICA card and adapter).

 

[Electrode]

yeah, I have tried it in another comp that uses the PCI-PCMCIA adapter and it worked fine. I also took that comp's card out and put it in the laptop, and it did the same thing. weird.

 

[Nighthawk69]

What PCMCIA wireless card is it?

 

[Electrode]

an orinoco pcmcia card, same as yours