Linux Deleted

[animex2]

I just installed my new DVD Writer drive using windows. When i went back to linux to test it out it said it cant find the root secter. And when i went to upgrade my installation it said that the entire linux partiton is gone. And it wont let me reinstall a partition without deleting my windows drive. This is mandrake by the way

[animex2]

to add on, when i try to re-install it its telling me that drive hdd (in windows drive D) is to bad to be used and it has to be deleted. And it has 37 gig of windows files on it that i dont want to delete. And theres 43 gig of free space and when i try to add linux into there it says cannot add, that exceeds the maximim ammount of primary partitions

[st0rmrd]

Windows drive D is not neccesarily hdd
now, if you installed your DVD writer on your own you shouldn't freak out with the following

there are 2 IDE channels (two big flat cables going to your hds and dvd(s).

the one is the primary, the other the secondary.

each of these cables can be connected up to 2 devices, where the one is the master, the other the slave. the big picture is like this

Primary Master: hda
Primary Slave: hdb
Secondary Master: hdc
Secondary Slave: hdd

if by any chance you swapped places to the drive that has linux in to make room for the dvd writer that is the cause of your problem

... just a thought though, maybe something else goes on...

as for the windows drive that you want to use linux in... scandisk it and defrag it a couple of consecutive times to make sure everything will go well. mandrake shouldn't have a problem unless this is an ntfs drive (default for winxp). in which case you are fscked. you will need to back up your files in dvd-Rs or dvd-RWs then fdisk the disk to make room for linux and then format the drive to be used for windows and place the files back...

but don't rush, wait if someone else has an answer, in the case this is mandrake specific and someone has already come up with the answer ;)

[animex2]

my "D" drive is HDD beacuse thats what it was in my instalation when linux was working. And i dont think i did anything with the IDE cable beacuse i used the exact same cable used for my old cd rom drive in my DVD rom drive

[Naki]

Have you tried accessing the second hard drive in Windows? Also you may want to doublecheck the jumper setting on the DVD.