[mscareall]

Needing help again...

Many months ago I installed Mandrake 9.1 as a dual boot with Windows XP. I am done playing with it now, and need the space back on my drive.

I tried using partion magic 7 to remove the partions. I was able to successfully remove 2 of the 5 partions. Partion Magic errors out when trying to delete the other 3 partions. Partion Magic doesn't tell me what the error is.

So I tried method number 2, using the bootup cd for Mandrake. I only get so far and then that also errors out. I get one of 2 messages...

Could no uncomptress second stage ramdisk. This is probably an hardware error while reading the data. (this maybe cause by a hardware failure or a linux kernal bug)

FATAL: Kernal is too old
install exited abnormally :-(
sending termination signals...done
sending kill signals...done
unmounting filesystems
/tmp/image
/proc/bus/usb
/proc


---OR---

install exited abnormally :-( -- received signal 4

I am going nuts here. Is there anything I can do or have I just lost 14 gigs to nothing???

Shirley

[Mithrilhall]

Download yourself a copy of Knoppix and boot from that. It's a linux distro that run straight from the CD. See if you can use that to delete the linux partitions (fdisk).

http://www.knoppix.net/get.php

[trev.h]

If you want to delete the Linux partitions, rerun the mandrake install, and when the excellent diskdrake tool runs to partition the drive(s), delete the linux partitions and exit the install procedure (don't forget to write the partition table before exiting).

[mscareall]

I had some serious issues with my partions, after I posted, I pulled out the every so wonderful Windows 98 boot up disk to run fdisk to see what my problems were. It said that I had my C: drive (3 gigs) and my D: drive was my remaining space. There were no Non DOS partions, which is what always shown up when I have installed Linux in the past.

I tried to delete and format the D; drive, but no luck. So I backed up my email and documents and reinstalled windows XP.

It allowed me to delete and format my partions, so problem is solved. So now I have promised that next time I want to install Linux it will be on a separate drive completely.

Thank you guys for the help again.

Shirley