[kerelybonto]

I killed my computer. I'm good at doing these kinds of things.

Well, I should be able to resurrect it actually -- I just don't know how. The problem: when I boot the computer, it flashes the system information screen (i.e., RAM check, etc) very briefly, then goes to a blank screen with just the letters 'LI' up at the top.

Here's what I think happened: I had just repartitioned my main drive. I merged some old partitions into the one containing my C: drive, which contains my WINDOWS (I'm running XP) folder. The only thing I can think of is that I screwed up some things to which the master boot record pointed -- I was using lilo to dual boot with Red Hat Linux, but I chopped the Linux partitions.

If anyone knows about these kinds of things, I'd appreciate the help.

kerelybonto

 

[Duncan]

Uhoh, I remember that...

That happened to me on an older version of Linux circa 1998 (on my girlfriends PC, after I told her that Linux was bullet proof) when i made it into a split partition... the only way that I could get rid of it... was to do a low level format

I'm guessing you're running an older version? because afaik linux is now very good at dual booting with Windows, and can be deleted by just using the bootable CD??

The only other thing I can suggest... if you use the Windows XP bootable CD-Rom, go through all the spiel, and then 'attempt to repair'... there is a file there called 'fixmbr' - it warns about data loss, but - heck, if it works, brilliant, if it doesn't - it was screwed anyway... yeah?!

 

[rickcr42]

while on this topic

, I have been "computerless" for just over a week. Right now I am on my old pentium 1 that I put back together today and fired it up
The problem with my main computer is that when turned on it goes into scandisc and then into defrag.At this time I get a message stating that there is a section of the hard drive about to fail and would I like to
A-fix it (move the data to a safe area) or
B-skip it
OK , no problem right ?
WRONGO
I can not get the keyboard to respond at all !
Nothing.
The keyboard itself is fine since I am using it right now to type this

Normally I would just send the bitch out for repair but I can not lose vital data on the hard drive , an entire years worth of circuit designs and info that has been gathered for a year , not to mention all cantact information for the year



Anyone ?

 

[Duncan]

How are you at hands on Mr Rickster?

Presuming that you're using Windows of some description now, why don't you take the hard drive out of the 'broken' machine, add it as a slave to your current one, and then within windows, do a (much better than DOS) scandisk in there? - should solve the bootup problem on the other machine?!

(although, if the drive IS usable, I would advise copying your circuit designs to the 'older' hard drive first... at least then you'll have a backup if things go wrong)

 

[Duncan]

my turn to add a question into this thread now (hehe.. its all good fun

)

I bought a nice new motherboard today for my Athlon, with three memory slots...

I have... 2 x 256mb @ 133mhz and 1 x 128 @ 100mhz, total 640mb... my question, which is best (in terms of speed, extra especially loading times)? running the 512mb @ 133mhz or the 640mb @ 100mhz??

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally posted by Duncan I bought a nice new motherboard today for my Athlon, with three memory slots...

Which brand and model of motherboard did you buy, Duncan?

 

[Duncan]

ABIT KT7A (not the Raid version though)

 

[rickcr42]

Quote:

Presuming that you're using Windows of some description now, why don't you take the hard drive out of the 'broken' machine, add it as a slave to your current one, and then within windows, do a (much better than DOS) scandisk in there? - should solve the bootup problem on the other machine?!

Actually not too bad , and there is space in the tower for five more drives.
Question is , how will my "older computer" running windows 95 recognize the new hard drive with 98 on it ?
And what is the proceedure to "see" the new drive ?

 

[Duncan]

I don't know if Windows 95 with its FAT16 can read Windows 98 drives if they're set up as FAT32

If it can, or if the 98 drive was FAT16 in the first place, as long as you have a spare IDE connector, and a spare power connector, just plug it in (after changing the jumper settings on the drive you're plugging in ~ to slave mode) and then just use it as normal

If the 'faulty' drive IS FAT32, then... i'm not sure what you need to do

 

[CaptBubba]

Quote:

Originally posted by Duncan I have... 2 x 256mb @ 133mhz and 1 x 128 @ 100mhz, total 640mb... my question, which is best (in terms of speed, extra especially loading times)? running the 512mb @ 133mhz or the 640mb @ 100mhz??

Slap it all in there, and try and run it @133MHz. Because you can force the RAM clock to whatever you want it to be on that mobo (nice choice, btw. I have one and it never gives me trouble) it won't hurt to see if you can get it to run at 133. I bet that it will work, just not with the CAS latency set to 2. Running CAS 3 @133MHz is MUCH faster than CAS 2 @100MHz. Also make sure you have DRAM bank interleave enabled, I found this gave a boost as well. If it won't all work @133, then I would suggest just going with 512MB.

 

[gloco]

I didn't think you could put in ram with different clockspeeds....odd, yet interesting.

 

[taoster]

Quote:

it won't hurt to see if you can get it to run at 133.

 

[andrzejpw]

try running fdisk.

Do fdisk /mbr

That will overwrite your MBR with a windows one. Wait, winXP? Boot from your WinXP cd into the recovery console. Theres an option to rebuild a MBR. Don't remember it exactly. . .

Try going from there.

 

[kerelybonto]

Thanks for the help people.

Okay, ran the XP disk ... trying to repair didn't do anything. Got it to run DOS from the disk, though. ...

So does anyone know where fdisk is located? I'll try to have it create a new MBR if I can find it.

kerelybonto

 

[kerelybonto]

Okay, nevermind, I fixed it. Found the 'fixmbr' command.

Anyone have any suggestions on getting Linux to work properly on a laptop? I've tried putting RH v7.2 (I think -- the newest, whatever that is) on my MicronPC Transport GX, but it has problems with the LCD apparently. I can't get any of the GUIs to load.

kerelybonto