[boob]

I have an old Compaq computer that I am running Linux Mandrake on right now. It works fine with Linux but I was wanting to switch it back to Windows 98 SE. When I was the Windows 98 CD it tells me that it can't install it, I can't format the harddrive with FDISK, and Partition Magic tells me I have a bad disk. Is there any way to fix this problem at all?

Thank you in advance for any help you may have to offer.

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I dont know alot about Linux but anyway

You may need to use a program like partition manager or clean slate to delete the Linux partition. Not sure about that because I have used partition magic to create partitions for Linux and linux swap in the past.

If you have been unable to Fdisk or Format you should still be able to boot Linux?

Have you tesed the hard drive for surface errors?

[WhatThe]

I dont know alot about Linux but anyway

You may need to use a program like partition manager or clean slate to delete the Linux partition. Not sure about that because I have used partition magic to create partitions for Linux and linux swap in the past.

If you have been unable to Fdisk or Format you should still be able to boot Linux?

Have you tesed the hard drive for surface errors?

[boob]

I should be able to get rid of it with Partition Magic I thought. But anyways, Linux does boot (it's the computer I'm using right now that I'm having the problem with). Partition tells me that the hard disk is bad, but I don't think so because it works fine.. or I wouldn't be on here right now. It also tries telling me the harddrive detects an imminent failure, but the only problem that has caused is having to hit F1 to boot. I read on the interent that problem is just a malfunction and nothing serious.

So how would I go about checking the hard disk like you said. I'm convinced that even though nothing is wrong with the hard disk, the computer thinks there is.. therfore isn't letting me format. However, it let me format it just 2 months ago in order to install Linux.

[boob]

*The error message that partition magic gives me is "Partition table error #104 found"

[WhatThe]

I would USE Tuff Test to test for surface errors (but you would have to own a copy)

You could try downloading the utility from the manufacturers web site, they sometimes have diagnostics.

If there is no data on the disk that you need, I would try using partition manager to delete your existign partitions. This thing has deleted partitions Fdisk would not touch for me several times.

http://www.ranish.com/part/

Then use Fdisk to create the partitions if you like

[Tyger]

In a situation like that, and you don't need anything on the disk, I would say write the drive to zeros. I haven't checked but you can probably find the software on the Seagate site. I've done this with other drives that were "defective" and fdisk worked fine with them.

[boob]

Thanks for all the help. I'll try out your alls advice tomarrow (since I need to go to bed so I can wake up for work). I'll post back tomarrow at about this time to let you all know how it went. Thank you agian.

[boob]

I'm putting my faith in that ranish link. However, I'm having trouble opening it in Linux Mandrake. It won't extract them or anything.