-=> WAYNE CHIRNSIDE wrote to JEAN PARROT <=-

 ->         Hello Matt !

 ->  MM> Oh yes, Windows DOES do that!  :-((  If it fails to see the drive for
 ->  MM> any reason, it believes there is no data to be careful of and starts
 ->  MM> the installation with FDISK.

 ->         Windows does FDISK ?

 WC> The OEM CD does.

 ->  MM> If I read all of this correctly, Wayne's system now no longer 'sees'
 ->  MM> the drive at all.  If this is true, he will most likely have to put it
 ->  MM> on a newer system first that will 'see' the drive just to be able to
 ->  MM> zero the MBR.

 ->         Wayne has some hope for his HD as he said that he is keeping
 ->   it to install it as slave on another system. Then he would be able
 ->   to do an FDISK on his own and then format the HD again. That would
 ->   redo the MBR.

 WC> I was thinking Roy's advice might have some value in the
 WC> command line syntax he provided but on rethinking it
 WC> if fdisk /dev/hde doesn't see the drive his zeroing syntax
 WC> won't see it either :-(

Wayne will you put the damn thing on /dev/hda because you are making
things impossible by having it on /dev/hde. ;) It doesn't matter what 
size the BIOS sees for the time being. If it can see only 8gig then
so be it. Give the entire disk over to Windows after you have destroyed 
all partitions. Then split it in half using "fips" and Linux the rest.

When or if it works then move it to /dev/hde and see if it will boot.

By the way did it boot when you installed Linux the first time?

If that works then you can fdisk using Linux to get the larger size.

If you want to make the Linux partition larger then it shouldn't be a 
problem. You should also be able to use some space for another Windows 
partition. Don't forget once you have grabbed the lower portion of the 
disk (notional 1024) cylinders you can do as you please with the rest.

L8r. :)
    
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