Re: Debian Kills Disks
Subject: Debian Kills Disks
Date: Sun, Feb 28, 1999 at 06:39:39PM -0500
In reply to:Jerry Human
Quoting Jerry Human(JerrBear@commkey.net):
>
> Hello Debian Geeks:
>
> Before you get upset let me declare that I'm a Linux/Debian newbie geek
> wannabe. I've only recently (a month ago) became interested in Linux.
> I've spent most of the time reading everything I could find. I have
Good!
> d/led a few distros to get a feel of Linux. I have two computers, a
> 486DX50 VLB and a 386DX40. The 486 is running PC DOS 7.0 and Win95, 40x
> CD and SB 16 Pro that is my main box for doing almost everything
> including surfing the net. The 386 is my test box that I'm trying to get
> Linux to run on but it doesn't have a CD or modem. Consequently, I have
> obtained everything I have for Linux on the Win95 box and transferred to
> the 386 via floppy.
>
> I've made the floppies (Rescue, Drivers, 5 base disks for Debian)
> following the instructions in the .txt files and Howto's on the 486 in
> DOS using Rawrite for them and used the disks to install Debian several
> times as I would learn more and realize I had left something out or
> wanted to try something different. These seem to be the most stable
> floppies I have made in Debian. Needless to say, Debian would succeed
> more times than any of the other distros, including RedHat.
>
> Obviously, I spent most of my time working/learning Debian. However,
> after using a floppy two or three times, it became unusable in any OS.
> This I attributed to normal attrition, even though the attrition rate
> was a lot higher than in any of the other OS's. Now the hard drive in
> the 386 has become unusable.
Floppies are getting even worse. They are not reliable but we can't
all get a zip or LS120. Debian doesn't overwork them, they just fail.
I bought 100 new Fuji floppies and 15 out of 100 would not even
format, on Win95 or Linux!
>
> Even Debian is refusing to install properly on it, the last semi
> successful install attempt resulted in a Read Only partial install that
> won't boot from the hard disk and a floppy boot won't access the hard
> disk. I believe that Debian has "signed" the boot partition in some way
> to make the disk(s) unusable. In other words, a software flag or
> partition id was written to the disk in a way that was not completely
> correct. How can I correct this? Is there a Hex editor I could use to
> clear the boot sector of the disk so a new install would work correctly?
>
I would go to http://toms.net/tomsrtbt and get his 1 floppy Linux system.
With it you will be able to look at the HD and might be able to figure
what went west.
Another alternative is to get Trinux. It is IIRC a 2-3 floppy Linux
system which does the same thing.
These are great tools to use when you are having problems, such as you
have.
HTH
--
Linux - for those that deserve the Very Best!
_______________________________________________________
Wayne T. Topa <wtopa@ix.netcom.com>
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