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Drive formatted 3 ways-Win XP Pro on 1,formatted 2, want Fedora 5 on 3-How?

Sirs:
I have just installed Win. XP Pro on a 300 GB HDD in a 50 GB partition (to be able to maintain Windows files easily), have formatted in NTFS file system 211 GB for important Windows file storage on 2nd partition, and wanted to install Fedora Core 5 on the remaining unformatted space (hopefully about 20 GB). I purposly left this area on a third partition open for this, and placed a Fedora core 5 disk into DVDrom at startup. I came up with the fedora core 5 grub screen, which has the GNU GRUB version 0.97 at the top. I have the grub cursor flashing at me, but know nothing about commands in GRUB. I took out the Fedora DVD to reboot Windows but when I turn on computer again, it just goes back to the GRUB command screen. I would like to be able to boot this computer to Windows initially, and be able to switch to Linux if preferred. Now I keep booting the Grub screen, and can no longer boot windows. HELP! Thanks for your comments in advance-I am under a time limit to get this done-Thanks!
L. Daily
greywolf01 at EE

greywolf01

ASKER

I might add here that I was using a usb style external DVDrom which was not recognized in bios as one in the boot order. The cdrom is recognized in bios but not the DVDrom. So I thought I could just shut down windows and all would be fine (booting to windows again, but this does not seem to be the case). Thanks. Would appreciate some fast help on this from some of you Linux master gurus.

SOLUTION

veedar

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greywolf01

ASKER

Sir-Smart Boot Manager has several releases-do I need the exe release for Windows or one of the Linux releases in this case? Most of my hard drive has Windows on it, but now I have this Grub issue at startup????

veedar

You can create a Smart Boot Manager floppy from either a Linux or a Windows system. If it's the case that you are using a Windows system to download Smart Boot Manager then you want the .exe version.

greywolf01

ASKER

Sirs:
This screen appears to be a standard screen in Linux and says: For the first word, TAB lists possible command completions

Possible commands are: background blocklist boot cat chainloader clear cmp color configfile.............(and on in alphabetical order) different command completions??????

and the grub cursor

grub> _ waiting for a command

All I did was boot computer with this disk in the DVD drive with Windows on partition 1 (50 GB) and a blank but formatted partition 2 (211 GB) and a totally clear (non-formatted) but left over partition 3. Now I don't know what command to give this grub cursor and don't know how to boot windows again. What should I do?

veedar

I'm not a grub expert. So I can not help you there. I would re-install Fedora.

greywolf01

ASKER

I can not re-install Fedora because this screen pops up immediatly at startup and doesn't let me get anywhere else. I downloaded the floppy .exe file on Smart Boot Manager but it must not be bootable because even though floppy is set as 1st boot device, the floppy did not start, only the same Grub screen came up-so I am totally at a loss of what to do-don't want to run a Windows bootable and fdisk anything for fear of loseing my entire Windows operating system-it took hours to install-anybody else got any good ideas out there? I know this is not uncommon because I have seen the same screen on another computer but just fdisked that non dos partition and started over with that one-there must be a simple answer to this-

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

nedvis

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greywolf01

ASKER

nedvis:
SUPER COOL! I followed your advice and fixed it all in a snap! Also, veedar-thanks for your advice on Smart Boot Manager-I will have to keep that software in mind! Will probably use it in the future! I have one more question here concerning Fedora-you guys might want me to ask it in another question so that you can get points-please let me know if so, but do you know of a very quick and painless way to install ATI video drivers in Fedora Core 5-easy step by step instructions? I have a HP x4000 workstation here with a Fire GL4 Video Card and need that to run this Fedora core 5 correctly on this install. If you can answer this quickly OK but as I say-for the points let me know I will start a new question on it- Thanks a Million for the help!
L. Daily
greywolf01 at EE

nedvis

"...painless way to install ATI video drivers in Fedora Core 5-easy step by step instructions?..."

Here we go , guy's name is Stanton Finley and he has his treasures for Fedora users to share:
http://www.stanton-finley.net/fedora_core_5_installation_notes.html
http://www.stanton-finley.net/fedora_core_5_installation_notes.html#nVidia

good luck
nedvis

greywolf01

ASKER

Wow-very cool stuff-just what I needed-thanks alot nedvis!
Have a great and safe 4th of July!
greywolf01