Ok - I tried installing slackware in 'newbie' mode and it crashed. It said
something about an error and then it just hung. So... I rebooted.
Unfortunately after that it wouldn't boot to the CD and it just wouldn't do
much of anything. So I went to the BIOS and tried to change boot order to A
and reformat my hard drive. That didn't work and so I tried a BIOS low level
format and now all I get is a "primary master h/d fail". Anyone know what I
can do to try again...

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R.Spinks regaled us with the following:

> Ok - I tried installing slackware in 'newbie' mode and it crashed. It said
> something about an error and then it just hung. So... I rebooted.
> Unfortunately after that it wouldn't boot to the CD and it just wouldn't
> do much of anything. So I went to the BIOS and tried to change boot order
> to A and reformat my hard drive. That didn't work and so I tried a BIOS
> low level format and now all I get is a "primary master h/d fail". Anyone
> know what I can do to try again...

First thing I would try is:
- - Boot with a DOS/Startup disk
- - 'fdisk /mbr'


- --
Skorpion [skorpion at suespammers dot org]
"Don't attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by
stupidity."

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In alt.os.linux.slackware, R.Spinks dared to utter,
> Ok - I tried installing slackware in 'newbie' mode and it crashed. It said
> something about an error and then it just hung. So... I rebooted.
> Unfortunately after that it wouldn't boot to the CD and it just wouldn't do
> much of anything. So I went to the BIOS and tried to change boot order to A
> and reformat my hard drive. That didn't work and so I tried a BIOS low level
> format and now all I get is a "primary master h/d fail".

Given that you can't boot anything, you're getting a drive failed error
from the BIOS, I'd say hardware problem. It could be bad RAM, but I'd
more likely suspect the motherboard.

- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 21:40:57 -0400, "R.Spinks" <rspinks1@wowway.com>
wrote:

>Ok - I tried installing slackware in 'newbie' mode and it crashed. It said
>something about an error and then it just hung. So... I rebooted.
>Unfortunately after that it wouldn't boot to the CD and it just wouldn't do
>much of anything. So I went to the BIOS and tried to change boot order to A
>and reformat my hard drive. That didn't work and so I tried a BIOS low level
>format and now all I get is a "primary master h/d fail". Anyone know what I
>can do to try again...

It is REALLY strange that you could boot the CD before but now you
can't. If you post again, tell us why not.

If you can't boot the installation CD, boot from a DOS floppy. Run
FDISK /MBR

Run FDISK again and create a single partition, activating it.

Run FORMAT C: /U /S

If all that worked, your HD will boot. How you get Slackware on it is
up to you.

If you CAN boot the Slack CD, then run FDISK or CFDISK and create 2
partitions. One big one type 83 for linux, one small (2 gigs or less)
one type 82 for a swap partition. Be sure to activate the type 83
partition.

Proceed with the installation and have it do the format.

It would be a damned good idea to WRITE DOWN THE FSCKing error message
if another one occurs, because you're not going to get much help here
with "it crashed. It saidsomething about an error and then it just
hung. So... I rebooted.". Include the EXACT error message in its
entirety in your next post.

buck

NOTE: This message was sent thru a mail2news gateway.
No effort was made to verify the identity of the sender.
--------------------------------------------------------

pgp trash troll delete

Hicks, Alan
188 Shady Dale Dr
Lizella, GA 31052
478-935-8132

+Alan Hicks+ <alan@lizella.network> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> In alt.os.linux.slackware, R.Spinks dared to utter,
>> Ok - I tried installing slackware in 'newbie' mode and it crashed. It said
>> something about an error and then it just hung. So... I rebooted.
>> Unfortunately after that it wouldn't boot to the CD and it just wouldn't do
>> much of anything. So I went to the BIOS and tried to change boot order to A
>> and reformat my hard drive. That didn't work and so I tried a BIOS low level
>> format and now all I get is a "primary master h/d fail".
>
> Given that you can't boot anything, you're getting a drive failed error
> from the BIOS, I'd say hardware problem. It could be bad RAM, but I'd
> more likely suspect the motherboard.
>
> - --
> It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
> Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
> Ecclesiastes 7:5
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> Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux)
>
> iD8DBQFBWh/IlKR45I6cfKARAgumAJ9IPAXmxcdz+gb+gD5BJsoYUT7qzwCgq 7hQ
> JoSl0bRBu99BZvq63YCIi2M=
> =FpdJ
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

buck wrote:

> Be sure to activate the type 83
>partition.
>
>
Why???????
Three different Linux distros on my hard drive and the only "active" but
hardly used partition belongs to MS-Windows98.
What can be done, this thing needs the help of "activation" to start moving.

Stanislaw
Slack user from Ulladulla.

R.Spinks wrote:

> Ok - I tried installing slackware in 'newbie' mode and it crashed. It said
> something about an error and then it just hung. So... I rebooted.
> Unfortunately after that it wouldn't boot to the CD and it just wouldn't
> do much of anything. So I went to the BIOS and tried to change boot order
> to A and reformat my hard drive. That didn't work and so I tried a BIOS
> low level format and now all I get is a "primary master h/d fail". Anyone
> know what I can do to try again...

If you have made a low level format on an IDE drive the chance is rather big
that you have ruined that drive. Low level format from BIOS is NOT
something you should do unless you have a very old drive < 40 MB notice MB
not GB ! If you use low level format on a bigger disk you can ruin it, the
translation table give something like 16 heads xx sectors and the chance
that your drive physically have 16 heads is very slim.

Change your harddrive and try again. But since you got the error of not
being able to boot from CD-drive then the chances are that you have a
faulty motherboard. One question though, the motherboard that you have what
model and how old is it?

Micke

--
# The truth lies in there, #
# somewhere in the manual. #

R.Spinks wrote:

> Ok - I tried installing slackware in 'newbie' mode and it crashed. It said
> something about an error and then it just hung. So... I rebooted.
> Unfortunately after that it wouldn't boot to the CD and it just wouldn't
> do much of anything. So I went to the BIOS and tried to change boot order
> to A and reformat my hard drive. That didn't work and so I tried a BIOS
> low level format and now all I get is a "primary master h/d fail". Anyone
> know what I can do to try again...

Replace your hard disk. There's very few things you can do about a "primary
master h/d fail". You could try poking at it with sfdisk, but more than
likely it's dead.

On Tuesday 28 September 2004 06:40 pm, R.Spinks did deign to grace us with
the following:

> Ok - I tried installing slackware in 'newbie' mode and it crashed. It said
> something about an error and then it just hung. So... I rebooted.
> Unfortunately after that it wouldn't boot to the CD and it just wouldn't
> do much of anything. So I went to the BIOS and tried to change boot order
> to A and reformat my hard drive. That didn't work and so I tried a BIOS
> low level format and now all I get is a "primary master h/d fail". Anyone
> know what I can do to try again...

What the hell is a "BIOS low level format"? I haven't heard of a low level
format in over 15 years, and I've _never_ seen anything like that in any
BIOS, and I've seen a few BIOSes. Well, at least their setup screens.

You just piled one fuckup on top of another, didn't you?

Take the computer to somebody who's qualified, and get it fixed, and then
before you start formatting shit, read the fucking instructions.

Good Luck,
Rich

On Tuesday 28 September 2004 09:52 pm, Stanislaw Flatto did deign to grace
us with the following:

> buck wrote:
>
>> Be sure to activate the type 83
>>partition.
>>
>>
> Why???????
> Three different Linux distros on my hard drive and the only "active" but
> hardly used partition belongs to MS-Windows98.
> What can be done, this thing needs the help of "activation" to start
> moving.
>
I haven't done the actual experiment, but whenever I've written a
partition table without a DOS partition marked "active", it tells me
that MS-DOS won't be able to boot the disk. So what? LILO doesn't seem
to mind. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich