HELP! HELP! windozzzz

[yesidowindows]

ok here goes . i have a pentium 4 ,128 megs of ram a 20 gig hd and a 1.3 gig processor (i think) i let a supposed friend "borrow" my computer and it seems he installed windows xp pro (not a "legal" version) I have the disk for this "version" of xp pro but i cannot download service packs because of the problem with how it was acquired .i don't have a disk to reinstall windows me( which i was not fond of anyway) and my puter is not a commercial brand.I can't format or use f-disk or boot to DOS i want to go linux (mandrake 9.0?) i have tried to download it but this whole ISO thing has me stumped. but i am so familiar with windows i dont know if i can handle it and i am worried that it won't have all the stuff i can get with windows. but first , i want to write zeros to the drive and reformat. but i can't ! I have tried everything and I can't boot to DOS i am stuck!!!?%$^$%&&
he also converted my hd to NTFS so i am bumming and i hate it and i desperately need help!hope y'all are feeling generous especially since i am new. i will be waiting anxiously for some good news if there is any.
  :mad:

[Pantso]

What kind of a friend is that? Don't worry though, now is your chance to install and start using Linux. Learning how to use a new OS could be a bit frustrating at first but be persistent and you'll be rewarded. You don't have to dl the ISOs if you don't want to. You can always buy very cheap Linux CDs from the Web!

As for your Windows problem sorry but I can't help you and to be frank I don't think that any of the guys here will be able or want to help you. And last but not least don't use pirated software  

[Ice-9]

M$ removed the possibility of rebooting to Dos from ME on, so it's quite "normal" you can't boot to it.
If you have a Win98 bootdisk lying around you can boot from floppy and from there access fdisk quite easily.
Delete all the Dos partitions you see and you can install Mandrake, although I would recommend Redhat 8.0 these days  

If you don't have a bootdisk, you can boot from cd (I suppose Xp handles it the way Win2K does) and format your drive before the actual install (format it in fat32), just stop the install after the formatting and you're good to go.

Hope this helps.

[RudeCat7]

Didn't we have a post just like this before? Is it the same so-called "friend"?  :confused:

[Zombie9920]

Actually you can use SP1 with pirated copies of XP. You just have to install XP with a product key(Volume License Key/VLK) that isn't blacklisted.

[ October 09, 2002: Message edited by: Zombie9920 ]

[voidmain]

Boy I would like to see someone busted over this little transaction.

[kinky]

if your just going to blank your hard drive....

just boot off your linux CD or DVD and you can delete partitions and make new ones there... throw the MS junk away

[Calum]

yesidowindows, good for you on deciding to try mandrake! i use mandrake 8.2 and i find it is very satisfactory. not tried 9.0 yet as i heard it is still in beta. anyway i am happy with 8.2.

Re: installing mandrake on your machine, mandrake comes with a GUI partition editor in the installer. Just get a mandrske CD, boot off it and run the installer. You will be able to resize your existing partitions and make space for mandrake. you will easily be able to resize your fuxx0red windows 'system' to a couple of gigabytes (i have heard that xp needs 4 or 5 gigabytes though) and then make another partition or two for linux. my advice is put a fat32 partition about 2 or 3 gigs in size at the end of your drive so you can easily share files between the 2 systems if you want, and also "if" you ever need to reinstall windows, you can leave this extra partition untouched.

[Calum]

btw, there are a few ways to get linux other than downloading, get one mail order for not much more money than cost. here are a couple i snitted out for you at random:

http://bitbone.de/storefront/catalog/default.php
this is a version of Debian for about 50 euros

oh,
http://www.liniso.de/shop.php?artikel=65#65
this one has mandrake 9 for 9 euros, debian for 15 euros and several others including gentoo linux, freeBSD and OpenBSD.

http://www.rootshop.de/produkte/software/
this one will allow you to get the latest red hat, mandrake, debian, slackware, freebsd et cetera. for red hat and mandrake, the price seems to be 8 euros for 3 CDs.

[Doctor V]

quote:Originally posted by yesidowindows:
ok here goes . i have a pentium 4 ,128 megs of ram a 20 gig hd and a 1.3 gig processor (i think) i let a supposed friend "borrow" my computer and it seems he installed windows xp pro (not a "legal" version) I have the disk for this "version" of xp pro but i cannot download service packs because of the problem with how it was acquired .i don't have a disk to reinstall windows me( which i was not fond of anyway) and my puter is not a commercial brand.I can't format or use f-disk or boot to DOS i want to go linux (mandrake 9.0?) i have tried to download it but this whole ISO thing has me stumped. but i am so familiar with windows i dont know if i can handle it and i am worried that it won't have all the stuff i can get with windows. but first , i want to write zeros to the drive and reformat. but i can't ! I have tried everything and I can't boot to DOS i am stuck!!!?%$^$%&&
he also converted my hd to NTFS so i am bumming and i hate it and i desperately need help!hope y'all are feeling generous especially since i am new. i will be waiting anxiously for some good news if there is any.
   :mad:  

Your specks are more than enough for Linux.  Mandrake or red hat.  Your comp. won't boot?  Get a floppy disy, and get format fdisk and command.com on them.  You can download those programs, just do a web search.  You can boot from that and format the hard drive.  Boot from A, Format C...now your all set.  You could probably boot from your Linux disk after you have it though.  ISO is really easy.  Just download the ISO image files first.  Then open up your CD burning software.  It *should* have an option for burning ISO images.  Use that.  If you can't find any ISO option, just tell us what CD burning software you are using, someone here should be able to tell you how.  Its pretty straightforeward.  And yes, you can get all the stuff you can with windows on Linux.  Just tell us what you are worried about/can't get working, I'm sure someone will tell you how.  It takes a bit to get used to, thats all.    :cool:    The future is bright.

V

[Calum]

well, you can do that bootdisk/iso thing but a lot of people have posted here saying they can't really do the isos which is why i posted those links to cheap mail order linux distributions.

if you really do want to boot to DOS using a non win9x version of windows, you must boot into windows, put a blank floppy in your drive and then start>settings>control panel, then add/remove programs>emergency startup disk, then follow the dialogue to create a boot disk. reboot with that in the drive and bob's yer uncle, fannie's yer aunt.

now i just tried this in windows 2000 and the bootdisk option is not there in add/remove programs. No doubt it will be somewhere else in control panel, i also attempted to use the 'sys' command to make one, and that's no go as well. maybe you could download the disk image of a DOS bootdisk from bootdisk.com and then use rawrite (or dd if you have installed linux by then) to make a boot floppy.

frankly though, i don't know why you would ever need to boot to DOS once you have linux set up...

[rtgwbmsr]

To get started with Linux, check this thread out:
http://forum.fuckmicrosoft.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=13&t=000057

It's got all you need to know...no use repeating what's been said. It's good that you chose Mandrake, as all of the info in that thread is Mandrake specific.

Enjoy  

[lazygamer]

With a modem that WORKS in Linux(im sure most do though, so don't worry), and a burnt Linux CD(no no stupid windoid take the fucking thing outta the oven before it's too late!) nothing can stand in the way of you conquering a single boot Linux! Except being a bit too heavy into computer games.  

I am a bit too heavy into computer games and don't have a modem that works! Talk about double whammy. The modem thing won't change for quite a long time, so im in permanant "bondage"(yes, no clean stuff with my mind) with Windows. Sigh ok Bill, I'll bend over.  

But it could be differnt for you! If you have a modem that works in Linux you'll be free I say, FREE!