RE: Dead Packard Bell -Linux blamed (a tad long)

["Chris Strandt" <strandtc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I can't see how Linux could have screwed up your drive.  It sounds like
either a hardware cmos setting has been over written (I have no idea how),
or something just died on you (exactly at the wrong time).  I would stick a
totally different drive in, and see if it is reconized.

Packard Bells are not that bad once you remove the really proprietary
hardware (sound card, video card, cdrom).  They are only good for processing
though.  I'm running a Packard Bell 486 66DX, with 16MB of RAM, and it
actually runs good.  I would compair it to a Pent 120 with Windows 95 (based
on the response of X, and X apps).

Packard Bell computers are NOT what I would call good computers... but
SOMETIMES you can scrape together a semi-decent machine (after you gut it..
hehe).

I'm guessing that the IDE interface is defective... not the partition tables
or something.  If you want to redo your partition tables quick.... you can
download 2 utils from
ftp://ftp.littleblueroom.com/downloads/zap
that will write zeros into every sector(?) on the disk.  Zap just does the
partition tables, wipe does the whole drive.  Then use fdisk(dos) or Lilo to
rewrite your MBR, and Part tables ("fdisk /mbr" is for the Master Boot
Record).

Good Luck
-Chris Strandt