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5909
January 24th, 2004 03:00
Newbie, need help! Dimension 4600, Mandrake 9.2 install, partioning problems.
Hello. I downloaded the 3 CDs of Mandrake 9.2, figuring I'd install it on my computer running Win XP Home. I have a 120 gig hard drive that was, at the time, in one big 120 gig NTFS partition. I booted the computer with the Mandrake install disc 1, got to the part about partitions, and told Mandrake to resize my partition so that there would be 10 gigs for Linux and everything else would be for Windows. Well, I did this, and then powered off my computer, because I was wanting to verify that my NTFS data was okay. Anyway, when I powered my computer back on, I got the dreaded dead LG-CD-ROM drive error (I know, I'm an idiot, I didn't even check to see if my CD-ROM was an affected model beforehand, apparently it was). Thus, my computer couldn't recognize that disc drive, it was dead. The computer still booted into Windows, though, and everything worked fine (except that the CD-drive was not recognized.) Anyway, fortunately I was able to call tech support and order a new drive, it's on its way now. In the meantime, I have totally abandoned Mandrake 9.2, there's no way I'm risking my hardware. My computer runs fine now. The only thing that bugs me is that 10 gigs (the 10 gigs I had siphoned off of the Windows partition) are missing from Windows' description of the hard drive, that is, in My Computer the HD shows up with a capacity of 10 gigs less than it actually has. Under computer management > disk management, Windows doesn't seem to recognize that there is (I assume) 10 gigs of unformatted space on the drive; although it lists the disk's capacity as 120 gigs, the Windows volume is less than that. Anyway, my question is: how do I get this space on the HD back? I don't want to stick Mandrake 9.2 back into my computer (I don't care about firmware updates. I just want to avoid messing with that as much as possible.) Why doesn't Windows detect that space left over after resizing the partition? Now, I do not believe that I told MDK 9.2 to create a new partition: I was messing with the dialog box and was confused as to whether to select 'Linux native' or 'ext3' or whatever, so I selected nothing. I want to know whether I can get that extra space back, or whether a full reinstall of Win XP will detect that space. Also, do you think that if I download Fedora Core 1 (which I'm currently looking at), it will recognize the extra 10 gigs and install itself there, or at least give me the option to format that extra space as FAT32 or something that Windows can recognize? Thank you.
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angusauld
28 Posts
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February 8th, 2004 02:00
See the Mandrake errata on the non-standards compliant LG-CDROM's, here:
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/lgerrata.php3
This IS NOT a Mandrake problem, but rather a non-standards issue with the LG drives.
I had one of the problem drives in my Dimension 2100, and got rid of it in favor of a CDRW (LG GCE-8525B).
I am not familiar with Fedora Core 1, or any RH systems first hand, but from what I have heard, Mandrake is more user friendly. The Mandrake installer is really very user friendly, and I have not had any major problems with any version of Mandrake from 8.2-9.2 on this Dell.
I hope you don't have a bad impression of Mandrake-Linux because of the non-standards problem of the LG CDROM.
I don't think you will get XP to recognize the 10 gig partition, which is probably ext3 by default. I can't say for sure, but you might have to reformat & reinstall XP afresh.
I hope that maybe you will reconsider trying Mdk 9.2. It is really a very nice system. Mandrake can can format and resize FAT32 or NTFS file systems. Just make sure your new CDROM isn't one of the problem one's. ;-)
Best regards to you, and good luck with whatever you decide to do. :-)
empirionx3
3 Posts
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February 8th, 2004 16:00
2) Your 10g is gone because you probably wrote the partition table to disk. If you want to get it back, you have to clear the linux partition, and then resize the windows partition to go to the end of the drive (thus reclaiming the 10g). You could easily do this using the mandrake installer if you had to. If you don't want to do that, you'll probably have to find some sort of windows partitioner. (not familiar with any, sorry)
3) PLEASE do not give up on Mandrake. Great distribution. You ran across the one pitfall that you could have, and a simple update will do the trick. I've installed Fedora on a system before and had almost none of the hardware work without a large hassel. Installed Mandrake, and everything worked without any effort from me, and I appreciate that. Hope you'll give it another chance.