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cantsleep
07-06-2003, 01:32 AM
i run redhat on a dell desktop... the thing is that i always have trouble entering the fdisk utility (ie. i get a blank screen and a blinking cursor which stays that way forever) when i attempt to repartition the (linux native) hard drive... to get around this, i've been debugging the hard drive initially, so that i can enter and use the fdisk repartitioning features and subsequently i format the drive... i have two general questions: why am i not able to enter fdisk directly without debugging? secondly, is there an alternative method that i can use without going through the debugging process? tia
CrashTestDummy9
07-06-2003, 01:49 AM
Originally posted by cantsleep
i run redhat on a dell desktop... the thing is that i always have trouble entering the fdisk utility (ie. i get a blank screen and a blinking cursor which stays that way forever) when i attempt to repartition the (linux native) hard drive... to get around this, i've been debugging the hard drive initially, so that i can enter and use the fdisk repartitioning features and subsequently i format the drive... i have two general questions: why am i not able to enter fdisk directly without debugging? secondly, is there an alternative method that i can use without going through the debugging process? tia I always use Disk Druid to partition and format.Fdisk is pretty complicated(confusing may be a better word) if you arent used to it.Disk Druid works quite well and I have only had a few minor hiccups using it.These days a 3rd party partitioner like Partition Magic 8.0 can do just as good a job.
I dont have any real answer to why your having probs entering fdisk without debugging though.
I don't have much of an answer either, but two good partitioning programs are parted (http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/parted.html) and cfdisk (http://www.linux101.org/site/man.php?cfdisk) . Cfdisk should be on your system, hopefully, but I'm not sure about parted.
bandwidth_pig
07-08-2003, 07:41 PM
Most strange. I use fdisk myself (although not with RedHat) and have never had the problem you are describing. Syntax of course being:
fdisk /dev/hda
At which point you should be able to enter M for help. I can't understand why fdisk isn't working. How are you debugging?
mrbl0nde
07-08-2003, 08:27 PM
i agree with o0zi...never use fdisk. it isn't good at maintaining data integrity on existing partitions on the same drive (by "isn't good" i mean it doesn't do it at all).
cfdisk is the way to go.
Originally posted by mrbl0nde
cfdisk is the way to go.