Thinkpads Forum

howdy -- my old 600e(6gb hd) has xubuntu and puppy on it, which i like -- when the second 600e(12gb hd) came in the mail today, i new it was coming with windows98(not se), so i decided to remove it and install the same systems -- ok, so i may have jumped in too quick, but i deleted the two partitions, c and d, with fdisk -- now, when i try to install xubuntu, i get to the partitioner, it computes guided, starts to format ext3 on the first partition, and freezes at 33% -- i know this is a good cd, as i used it to install xubuntu on the other 600e -- also, if i try fluxbuntu, or ubuntu alternate, they all freeze at the same spot

now, maybe something's up with the Simple 12gb hd -- i noticed that when it still had win98, drive c was only 2gb, drive d, extended, was 10gb, and empty

anyway, as the signature says, i don't know much, any help is appreciated

bob

So is the hard drive good?

My next step would be to mess with custom partitioning, but I like to mess with things . Just make a big main partition and a small swap partition. Maybe try different sizes to see if a certain section of the disk is causing it to hang up.

well, here's where its at as of today -- i ran spinrite, and scandisk, for about 8hours, and both say no bad sectors

iwhen i tested the xubuntu cd in the 12gb 600e, it says no good -- so i figure that was my problem all along -- but when i put it into my old 600e, it tests fine - ??? -- maybe something up with the cd drive? -- since i notice that every boot cd i put in, except dsl, it has a problem with -- will start the install, then freeze -- for instance, on puppy live, it stops at xorg -- fluxbuntu and xubuntu, stops at 33% of formatting ext3

once again, when this is resolved, i will have learned something, but i'd just as soon remain ignorant

Can you swap the CD drives on the two machines and install Xubuntu on the 12G 600e with the known-good CD drive?

IIRC, Windows 98 fdisk is a bit unique. Using that might have caused your problem. I suggest using a low level format utility to clean the hard drive of all partitions, although removing all partitions with fdisk may do the trick.

Usually you have to use the hard drive manufacturer's low level format utility for it to run. On the off chance that you have a Hitachi drive, here is their utility "Drive Fitness Test".
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

thanks - i got it fixed -- the memory wasn't seated properly, wasn't the hard drive after all

this was all in preparation for installing a 500mhz cpu, and additional ram -- just in case it doesn't function after that, i needed a baseline to return to