What the title says is what i need to do . I have installed opensuse on a partition based dual booting system. I thought I knew what I was doing so I went into windows computer/(right click)manage then i started going ramboo (not good at all) on all of the partitions deleting any i could. well I know I am a F$%$ing idiot but i cant login to windows now because it says missing boot manager LOL so I can only boot into my opensuse. I wont to dedicate my entire system to opensuse if you guys could help me out i would appreicate it greatly. I need instructions on how to reinstall or whatever it takes to make my how harddrive for opensuse. If you do reply with instructions I will ask you to please make them idiot proof in your writing of them. thanks a bunch 
Open a terminal and post the result of
fdisk -l
Like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h191KrDK-I0)
Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9bd0776d
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1828 14683378+ 27 Unknown
/dev/sda2 1829 1841 104422+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 1842 27127 203109795 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 * 27128 38914 94672896 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 27128 27390 2103296 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 27390 30000 20971520 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 30001 38912 71584768 83 Linux
linux-jyiv:/home/richard #
thank you very much for helping (thumbs up)
I can tell you it’s a hell of a job.
Personally, if it were me. I would re-install openSUSE to do it. Mostly because I know it will take a long time to delete and resize everything. Not to mention all the partition numbers changing which will bork the booting.
Because I have an external backup device it’s easy to say as I do. But what is your situation?
well i have a windows system desktop but i want to be totally into linux and dont want the distraction and easyness of windows i am studying computer sciences at the moment in uni. and want all my attention into linux and doing things manually and getting to know the linux /unix language / system since a majority of major systems are unix based. if you are so kind as too help me with the venture i would be forever greatfull.
I don’t see the problem here, since all your Windows partitions are primary ones. Just delete sda1, sda2, sda3 with fdisk on a running system or using gparted under PartedMagic or a live system. Create 1 to 3 new primary partitions in that space, format them as ext4 and put whatever who want in there, i.e use them for openSUSE or install another Linux distro. Make sure that the bootflag remains on the extended partition (sda4) or you won’t be able to boot openSUSE anymore (it’s easy to fix though). If you have only Linux, you can/should install Grub in MBR too.
kungfu58 wrote:
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sda2 1829 1841 104422+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/sda3 1842 27127 203109795 7 HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/sda4 * 27128 38914 94672896 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
> /dev/sda5 27128 27390 2103296 82 Linux swap /
do you have any data (music, emails, movies, art work, books,
letters to/from Aunt Tillie etc etc etc) on any windows partition that
has not been saved to other media?
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]
Kung fu,
A loooong time ago there was a guy that was dual booted & wanted to make his drive all then Suse10.2 he liked yast.
Then he had this great thought he’d delete all the windows partitions & got himself into the same mess you did.
That guy was me & what I did was exactly what caf said I just stuck in the Suse DVD & re-installed.
Now don’t take this the wrong way but here’s the idiot resistant way:
1.turn on you PC
2.open your DVD tray place in you Opensuse DVD or if you have it on a USB Drive place it into your PC
3.when the boot from cd or USB shows up just go with the install instructions like you did the last time.
Kung Fu ,welcome to OPensuse & it’s forum, I hope that your lessons go well & we can help!
Hey I never thought of that - Much!
I’m not sure this is what our friend really wants and it’s not pretty IMO
That doesn’t mean anything, except that that guy was stupid.
It would be a little bit more complicated it the OP had Windows logical drives. But it that particular case, removing the 3 primary partitions is harmless, whether you create new ones or leave this space blank. Once you have a generic bootcode and Grub on a bootable partition (the case here) or if you install Grub in MBR, Linux doesn’t care about what you might have or not in the other partitions. I would even suggest to create a primary partition, leave it unformated, give it the ID 0xA5 and install FreeBSD in there, leave the MBR untouched (Don’t install any bootmanager or generic bootcode during Unix setup), later install Grub in MBR under Linux and chainload BSD from there… so you would have the best of both worlds and learn everything you need about Unix (well, maybe not quite, but that would be a good start). 
- Notice that I do not suggest using YaST to remove partitions!
Well, I apologize. I should have written that he didn’t know what he was doing instead. He might have been clever otherwise, good in philosophy among other things, and probably better than me in english writing. :shame:
That guy was me & I agree it was stupid, but sometimes in Linux that’s the way one learns.
Also the OP did say he wanted an "idiot proof " way. At the time that’s what I was so that’s the way I did it.
To this day I’m still not the brightest bulb here but I’m learning Thanks to people here & The Hard Way.
hi guys yeah i really want to start and dedicate my enitire system to opensuse so who has the best instructions to help me out . I thank you all very much for all of your input and cant wait to get started. lets get started anyone feel free to chime in .!!
i know this is off subject but is there an application i can download to detect my hdmi cable that i insert into my laptop to display everything on the tv I hate to say it but with windows it justcame up lol
What about reinstalling and use the whole hard disk for openSUSE? If you’re looking for an easy solution, that would be the simplest thing to do.
ok that sounds great sir thank you i did reinstall before but it keep automatically partioning the windows and opensuse can you instruct me on how to do this step by step, there must be a way in the instalation to custom partitioning,
let me know and again thank you to everyone on helping me with this journey of mine
At this point
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/11.2%20slideshow/pic8-default%20partition%20proposal.png
then
select use entire disk here with option 1 in this pic
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/11.2%20slideshow/pic9-custom%20partitioons.png
when i go into the expert option is there a option for use entire disk is that whats it called ,just need to know since i am very easly confused and just want to get this rightfirst time lol thanks you sir
ohh i see so select option 1 then ill try thatright now
this is what i get now did we do it ???
Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9bd0776d
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 262 2103296 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 * 262 2873 20972544 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 2873 38914 289494016 83 Linux