Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[flamesage]

Alright, Im getting a seriously home sick from BYOND, since I can't go on another XP computer.

I am attempting to repartition it for XP, I currently have about 10GB on my computer (if this "Disk Usage" thing is printing out right.)

[img]http://img299.imageshack.us/my.php?image=space6nf.png[/img]

Last time I tried to do this though, I went into Qpartition (through a live MEPIS linux CD) and change it to.. NFTS and Something else..
Since the SYSTEM RECOVERY wanted another partition for it.

Anyway, Last time I got it to actually GET the files off of the CD and into the parition, but it kept on giving me errors about "failing" to write to drive (I think it's because I partitioned it wrong, giving it all to the SYTSEM RECOVERY drive, it also could have been that my HD was failing at the time.)

Anyway, How should I set up my partitions?
How much space should I give for the WINDOWS XP (home) SYSTEM RECOVERY partition? And how much should I give for my actual computer?

[Flash]

There's a lot of stuff here, under "Installing on and booting from HD," on partitioning, and installing Puppy on the same hard drive with Windows, for a dual-boot system.

[flamesage]

I don't really want to duel boot, I just need to know how much space should I give each parition so it has enough room?

(I am installing puppy linux on a flash card though.)

[danleff]

Let's see if I understand correctly. You just want to start from scratch and install XP on the system and you don't need to save any partitions currently on the drive?

If you were using QtParted, I found that it does not make reliable NTFS partitions. You can just make one large fat32 partition, then do an installation of XP.

However, if you are attempting to use recovery disks on a Dell or Gateway system, the recovery cd makes a hidden recovery partition on the drive. Is this the case in your situation? If so, you just need to make sure that the drive is formatted correctly for the recovery disks to see and do it's work. Use a utility like Maxblast (for Maxtor drives) or the Western Digital utility(if it is a WD drive), or Seatools (for Seagate drives) to make one fat32, then the recovery disk should do the job.

The advantage of using the manufacturer utilities is that they can also "zero write" the drive and then format the drive correctly. You can also check the viability of the drive to see if it has any defects.

[flamesage]

I am using HP.
So all I need to do is create ONE fat32 partition, and Windows System Recovery Disks will set everything else up?

^ still need this answered.

[danleff]

Yep, this should work. The hard drive needs to have a fat32 or NTFS partition on the hard drive to read the disk. In your case, you do not have an adequate NTFS utility to format the drive, unless you use the manufacturer's utility to do this for you.

Also see the HP document on formatting here for more information.

[Bruce B]

[flamesage]

Well I bought them from HP.
I am going to ATTEMPT to make a fat32 parition and see if XP will reinstall.
Wish me luck.
(PS: Whatever happens, I loose my puppy ;-; Thankfully I have the live CD though.)

[Bruce B]

Good luck!

I read the HP page danleft linked in this thread. I was a little put off at some false information I read.

The boot sector of a hard drive contains the hard drive’s startup information and holds the partition information. If the boot sector of a hard drive is corrupt or becomes infected by a boot sector virus, the drive will stop functioning or cause damage to the files stored on the drive. To try and restore the boot sector, type FDISK/MBR at a command prompt. FDISK rewrites the boot sector code while leaving the partition tables intact. This parameter should only be used if a problem is suspected and may not erase some boot sector viruses.

Actually, FDISK /MBR will not do anything for you if you have a boot sector virus or problem.

If you had a virus or unwanted boot manager on the MBR running FDISK /MBR would likely fix things.

[Bruce B]

You only lose your puppy (pupxxx) file is you don't back it up. It can be written to a cd-rom as a data file.

[Guest]

*curses*
I set my parition (only ONE partition) to Fat32, but when I go to enter the System Recovery it says "Failed to create user partition".
*whimpers* Please help me!

[Bruce B]

delete the partition with whatever (fdisk)

start the setup on an unpartitioned hd and see if that works

[Guest]

How would I do that with fdisk? I hear that's more reliable than that other one puppy has.

[Ian]

If you are using a Windows startup floppy with fdisk just boot it type in fdisk and delete all partitions, they should be either fat32 or nonDOS.

In Puppy CD start rxvt and type in fdisk /dev/hda then type in p to see the partitions then d to delete partitions, you will have to use the d command for each partition you wish to delete.

To create partitions use n and follow the instructions. To get help type in m.

You can use cfdisk in Puppy and it is more user friendly, just type in cfdisk and follow the menu at the bottom.

The recovery disks supplied by companies with the computer when it is bought are images of your hard drive.

Computers like this can be a pain as the company has own their drivers for the hardware and when they come with an OS such as XP installed, make it hard to do anything with the hard drive or even install a different hard drive.

This is alright for people who want a cheap system that they just want to use and do not intend modify but it makes it harder for those who do.

The alternative is to seek out businesses that put systems together for customers and try to find one that you can afford or build your own, which is not always the cheapest way to go especially if you stuff things up and end up with a useless costly pile of junk

[Guest]

Well I've used fcdisk in the past (the better one) and also Qpartition.
I just want my Windows XP back. =(