How to wipe, partition hd, install Puppy?

[mrbball151]

Big problem with my laptop. Things have progressively went from bad, to horrid. What started off as an error on startup, has turned into a full blown issue. Long story short, the current problem is that on startup, I get a "operating system not found" message (I had windows XP installed).

So, I put in the Vaio recovery cd. That won't work because it says, "cannot detect partition settings".

Next, I remember that I had made a Puppy cd awhile back (I'm running Puppy on the computer I'm typing from right now), and to try and give that a shot. Well, Puppy loaded from the cd. My plan is/was to install Puppy on the laptop, that way all the crap on my hard drive is fixed/cleared out, and then I can run my sony recovery cd.

Problem -- As I was reading the instructions on how to install Puppy to a computer, one of the first steps it to create a partition from Gparted Partition manager. When I open that up on my laptop, there are no partitions at all to choose from, and no options to choose to create a partition!

How can I create a partition, or install puppy, or hell, fix this issue?!

[rjbrewer]

Mrbball151;

It's not exactly clear from your post whether you want to
install puppy or xp.

In any case this link tells how to make partitions and install
puppy.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=29653


rjb

[Bruce B]

cfdisk is a fine tool for making paritions

# cfdisk

if you get an error, then

# cfdisk -z

if still an error, then

# fdisk -l

maybe the hard drive isn't even recognized or if it is, note the /dev/sd#

then back to cfdisk with

# cfdisk /dev/sd#

or

# cfdisk -z /dev/sd#

Puppy also has

# probedisk

If you have a recognized hard drive, but the partitioning tools just don't want to work with it, you can write zeros to it, which will make any data that may be on it irrecoverable, but the partitioning tools may want to work with it after the wiping.

I would recommend Darik's Boot And Nuke as a good wiping tool.

If you don't want to download the small image and burn a disk, then you can wipe it with Puppy

boot with the puppy pfix=ram option to make sure the disk is not mounted, which it really shouldn't be with your complaint

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sd#

Where # is what you have determined represents your hard drive.

[mrbball151]

rjbrewer - I ultimately would like to install xp from my recovery cd, but it currently says "Cannot detect partition settings", so I can't do it. So, I would like to install Puppy (since Puppy at least boots from the CD and gives me SOME hope or chance of fixing the problems).

See, when I look at those instructions, and it says to go to menu, system, GParted partition manager, and then click on "New", I can't do it! Everything is greyed out (New, delete, resize/move, copy, paste, undo, apply", there is nothing in the big box underneat, and the only thing I can click is "Gparted" with the option of refreshing devices, show features, or quit (non of which are helpful), or "help" which also isn't helpful lol.

Bruce B - I assume I have to type "cfdisk" in the console? I tried that and got a fatal error. Safe thing with "cfdisk -z". fdisk -1 gave me "invalid option --1".

For the boot and nuke, I just download the file, burn it as an image onto a cd, and then load it up?

If I don't want to go that route (I've never burned a cd or anything on puppy, so, not sure how to go about it...), I'm a little unclear on how to do it directly from puppy (I am a newbie).

[Bruce B]

Frankly, based on the feedback, it looks more and more like a hardware issue.

Bad drive, power supply, cable, controller ?

Is the drive recognized at the BIOS setup level?

[Flash]

I agree with Bruce, only I think it's your hard disk drive that's failed. You can download a utility to test it from the hdd manufacturer. If the drive has failed, you've lost everything on it and you have these options:

• 1. Replace the failed drive with another hdd and reinstall XP or another OS.
  2. Replace the failed drive with a solid state drive and reinstall XP or another OS.
  3. Replace the drive but don't install an OS in it. Instead, run Puppy from the CD (or better yet, if you have a DVD burner run Puppy from a multisession DVD) and use the drive for storage.
  4. Remove the drive but don't replace it (to save power and weight - though perhaps you could substitute a bigger battery). Instead, run Puppy as in choice 3, but use an external USB drive for storage.
  5. Buy a new laptop.

Option 4 is the cheapest. You can do it at home on your Out house table if you have some tools and a USB flash memory. I've been using it with multisession Puppy from a DVD for several years.