HD Install :: HD Prob, first one of these ever

you think u could walk me thru the process of paritioning with DSL right now? i am currently running it. when i typed cfdisk on Aterminal i get a fatal error, disc cant be opened

Try: cfdisk /dev/hda
Where /dev/hda is your disk (primary master). If you still get the error message your disk may be dead. You could try this to check that: badblocks -svw /dev/hda
Note that the 'w' option will overwrite the entire disk. If that command also gives a similar error then your disk probably is dead. On the other hand, I once "fixed" a dead CD-burner by taking out the cables (both ends) and reseating them a few times. As a last resort you may try that.

cfdisk will look at /dev/hda by default.

If indeed he has a drive at hda, you just probably need root permissions, so you could run "sudo cfdisk"

i tried sudo cfdisk and i got a fatal error, somthing like disk cannot be read. Am i screwed at this point or do i still hav a chance?

like right now im running from the DSL cd every time and everything gets saved into ram, well in other words nothing gets saved

Did you try skaos' suggestions? It may work. Another thing is to totally wipe your whole hdd using dd i guess... but it's probably better to try that badblocks thing first.

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