1 Topic by tommy

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Topic: Gparted cannot format my read only hard drive. Can I get around this ?

I have an old laptop which had windows 98 installed but it went foul so I installed puppy Linux. when i mount the laptop hard drive in Linux it can read from it but nothing else. I ran Gparted in Linux (with puppy running on ram and the CD drive) but it would not format, delete, re size or create new partitions. sometimes it would come up with error messages and sometimes the option was not available. When I ran Gparted I noticed that the Hard drive had a padlock sign next to it does this mean it is read only ? and is there anyway to get round this.
- thanks Tommy

2 Reply by plors

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Re: Gparted cannot format my read only hard drive. Can I get around this ?

you can work around this by using our livecd, see http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php for more information

3 Reply by tommy

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Re: Gparted cannot format my read only hard drive. Can I get around this ?

I have tried the Live CD  it loads up but just shows a screen full of dots with an X where the mouse would be

4 Reply by plors

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Re: Gparted cannot format my read only hard drive. Can I get around this ?

did you try xvesa in the bootoptions menu?

5 Reply by plors

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Re: Gparted cannot format my read only hard drive. Can I get around this ?

also (and this is important!) make sure you use our latest livecd (0.3.2-0)

6 Reply by tommy

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Re: Gparted cannot format my read only hard drive. Can I get around this ?

yes it is the most recent live CD. Where is the Bootoptions menu ?
-thanks Tommy

7 Reply by plors

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Re: Gparted cannot format my read only hard drive. Can I get around this ?

it's the first menu you get, it's called 'extra boot options'.

come on tongue

8 Reply by tommy (edited by tommy 2006-12-04 19:36:33)

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Re: Gparted cannot format my read only hard drive. Can I get around this ?

OK OK i am a beginner you know smile (I thought you meant gparted in puppy Linux not the live CD). I tried xvesa but I still get the screen of dots with the X in the middle. I have no idea what the problem is, the screen resolution is right as is the depth any more idea's ?
-thank you very much Tommy

9 Reply by plors

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Re: Gparted cannot format my read only hard drive. Can I get around this ?

it is ok to get that screen, but it should only be there for about 10 seconds, maybe you  have to wait a little longer?
If that doesn't help you could experiment with lower videosettings (resolution and depth).

10 Reply by tommy

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Re: Gparted cannot format my read only hard drive. Can I get around this ?

I will try the lower video settings but last time I waited about 3mins for the screen to disapear
-thanks tommy