Here's one for the hardware buffs.
I recently had a major crash on my main computer. Lost all the aplications, operating system etc. Just by luck I had copied all my pictures and files data to flash drives just before it happened. Main loss is all the bookmarks and my address book.
Hey ho.
So I put in a spare six Gig hard drive and fired it up.
It tried to load mandrake Linux; and didn't quite manage it.
'So', says I, 'strong medicine needed here'.
I put a DOS startup disk in the floppy. typed in Format C:, and let it do it's thing.
Having DOS on the hard drive is always nice. So I then installed DOS 6.2 ,
So far so good.
Pulled out the last of the floppis and re-booted.
The first page of the Mandrake appeared !
WHAT ! So, switch off (pulled the mains plug. It's the only way on that machine; no on/off switch.
Put the DOS start up disc in, re-booted and entered DIR C:
Just the command .com etc that you normally get, and , of course, a DOS folder.
Next, type in scandisk. run it.
It showed a TWO Gig drive.
Things are getting stranger by the minute.
Tried MSD. it showed two drives. A and C. But C only has two gig.
What has happened to the other four ? Below is the exact wording from MicroSoft Diagnostics..
A: Floppy Drive, 3.5" 1.44M
80 Cylinders, 2 heads
512 Bytes/Sector , 18 Sectors/Track
C: Fixed Disk. CMOS Type 47
261 Cylinders, 255 Heads
512 Bytes/Sector, 63 Sectors/Track
CMOS Fixed Disk Parameters
784 Cylinders, 255 Heads
63 Sectors/Track
LASTDRIVE=E
The FAT is FAT16, which I believe is good up to 8 Gig.
I suspect that sometime in the past I have divided this drive into two or more partitions. And that the Mandrake is lurking on one of these partitions. Abd when I Formatted it (they) weren't included in the operation. When I boot up it goes to this partition.
But why doesn't it show up ?
Now is the worst time in the world to have misplaced my Partition Magic.
HELP.
Dave