[ILUG] (no subject)

[Niall Walsh]

Tim O Driscoll wrote:

>i bought a laptop off a mate with linux redhat on it i want to format
>the hard drive i can get as far as the grub> command prompt but i have
>no idea what to do next can you help?
>
Well I'm not 100% certain about red-hat and it's normal grub setup, but 
I'm guessing hitting enter doesn't work?  Sounds like grub is there but 
maybe there isn't actually any other software installed?   It's not 
bringin up any sort of a menu?  Just "grub>"?   You could try typing 
"linux" or "kernel" also perhaps and hitting enter but it doesn't sound 
like anything is there?

> the 3.5 floppy disk doesnt work
>and the cd rom drive is tempermential to say the lease what commands
>do i need to type in the grub> command screen many thanks for your
>help
>
>Tim
>  
>
Well I would normally suggest using a liveCD (something like Knoppix or 
a smaller version) so you can boot up the machine and have a look around 
(if you were familiar with command line linux use then you could even us 
a boot floppy or two).  Sounds like this may not be an option ....   
What are you planning on doing after you format it if you can't boot 
from floppy/cd?  How will you install something else?  If you can boot 
off the network or a usb stick then you could use that same method to 
boot up something to have a poke around and do your formatting.

Niall