Advice on what system to go for as just a DeskTop operation

This is a little "later" and went ahead with looking into an 'install' and believe had gone too far and now the H/D seems to be missing Win7 SP1 Home Premium. Did a reboot and get a three (3) line message:

error: unknown filesystem.
Entering rescue mode. . .
grub rescue>
(with flashing cursur)

It looks as though awaiting an CMD on what to do? I did have Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS installed with grub. NOW WHAT?

Edited by LxCeeAB> Have used several commands from your 'man1' section and no command is recognized. Any ideas?
 
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You may have already noticed that CNTL-V doesn't usually work to Paste into a terminal, but you can highlight and CNTL-C to copy the command and then use the Edit/Paste menu of the terminal.

While the above may not work 'CTRL+SHFT+C' should copy and 'CTRL+SHFT+V' should paste in the terminal.
 
Whew. have tried to find a command for that "grub rescue>" but never happen. Reran the original DVD used to install Ubuntu v16.04.2 LTS it showed there was NOTHING on my H/D any longer. Stopped that one and reinserted the PCLINUXOS 2017.07 going ahead with an INSTALL. Then it showed the H/D AND Win7 SP1 H/P still there and did not have any part of Ubuntu nor Kubuntu. Both are gone so the install is under way on the H/D, will look into the install on my 'SD' card later. Just too relieved to know all is well on the home front, er, H/D. <PAUSE to check PCLINUXOS>

The repartitioning of Windows failed so selected the next partition table shown and that one failed also then the third one failed also. It tells me there is only four (4) gbs available and it needs a little over six (6) gbs. I will need to check how the settings are using my Ease US Partition Master maybe tomorrow after a nights rest, do not want to do this without sufficient rest. Thinking is better and easier.

Thank you for reading my updates
 
Lazydog,

Thank you for this information, do not know if you have read from the start of this thread or not, I take any HELP that can be posted. A short note, I am self taught and do not know everything, but; have been able to do things even Microsoft would not touch, of course this is all in Microsoft software of my self learnings, with some in Unix and Linux over twenty (20) years ago.

This will be added to my personal notes and saved.
 
"MrPicky,"

I have taken a screen shot, with my digital camera, the file is attached to this message. This is of the PCLINUXOS install where you are repartitioning the H/D to get space for the install. I have attempted all of the top three (3) and they all tell me, 'not sufficient space. The bottom selection is for the entire H/D without Windows, NOT acceptable.
 

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WIZARD’S RECOMMENDED READING

https://www.howtogeek.com/101862/ho...ndows-without-downloading-any-other-software/

and

http://www.partition-tool.com/resource/resize-partition-windows-7.htm

@LxCeeAB

OK Don, let’s focus on Larry for now, the 531s, since it is the target unit for this operation. If I seem overly repetitive of what you have said, I am doing it both for my own perspicacity, and for the benefit of any of The Viewers and Helpers whom might come along, rather than belabouring you with what you already know. Correct me with any of it as you see need.

Larry has, amongst other credentials and capabilities:

  • a 298 GB HDD

  • no internet access (yet, but can be remedied with inclusion of a NIC)

  • Win 7 SP1 installed as the main OS

  • EaseUS Partition Master on the Windows
Further, from your phone pic (& ta {Aussie for thanks, pron. “tar”}) Larry has:

  • Windows 7 consuming 41 GB, and needs some space for growth, let alone a minimal overhead of extra space for functioning unimpeded

  • A Recovery partition for Windows 7 (only). I do not understand the Lake & Lakefront references, but if that is personal, fine.
On the face of it, it would seem to be the case that not just PCLOS, but a number of Linux, (if you wished to multiboot) could be installed.

However (there's always a however), the following may apply, and you may know some, all, or none of it:

This style of computer is limited to a maximum of four (4) Primary Partitions, or three (3) Primary and one Extended Partition. This is a limitation, not of Linux, but of the MS-DOS/MBR (Master Boot Record) system.

In the case of very many OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), and that includes Dell, before they started to actually ship Linux in the shape of Ubuntu as an option – they would “fill up” the available partitions, I won’t point a finger at why, nor whom they had deals with. The outcome was it was difficult to install a Linux, or even Macintosh or Unix, as an alternative OS.

These firms would have your Windows partition, a separate system partition perhaps, a Recovery partition, &c using up the Primaries. At the same time as that, a lot stopped including System Install/Reinstall disks, saying you could use the Recovery Partition and Software (pretty impossible if your whole system goes down, and/or you have to replace an HDD).

So the important thing for you, Don, is to have a Recovery plan in place, for both your Windows to reinstall if it goes belly up, and security of personal data.

Once that is in place, we can outfox the 4 Primaries limitation, and give you plenty of space for PCLOS and any others (Linux) that might follow, should you desire.

A better picture for me/us of your current status quo on partitions can be provided, not by DrakX (but thanks) under the PCLOS install, but by one of the Windows options, that is :


  • Windows Disk Management (see the HowToGeek article, or try, at Menu, entering diskmgmt.msc at an elevated command prompt) and/or

  • EaseUS Partition Manager’s options (try to provide 2 or 3, like HTG article)
Once you have the info onscreen, Windows Snipping Tool (type snipping at menu) will capture a screenshot either in .png or .jpg format, which you can post up to us as you did the phone pic.

Try to provide this when you are “bright-eyed and bushy-tailed”.

third is removable (not sure what that is in reference),

The “removable” tag is often used on older equipment’s BIOS/Setup to refer to a USB device other than a USB stick, eg a connected device such as a USB (powered or unpowered) external HDD, or other storage device. I cannot be certain here.

still not getting an email when any posts are made to this thread.

Mate, did you follow my input on #17 page 1, and what results or not did it generate?

All for now, have some voodoo and sorcery to perform on the Toshiba, and once I power down this Acer, it may fall over for a day or two, but I will be around.

Cheers

Wizard
BTW Welcome @Lazydog, like the signature and the avatar, lol.
 
BTW Welcome @Lazydog, I too am relative new to this forum, by a little over a week/weak? Not familiar with all of their procedures, yet. Here is my late "Happy to have you on BOARD" I am an exSailor, USS Allen M. Sumner DD-692 my ship is no longer on duty.
 
"MrPicky,"
YES! I did just after reading that set of instructions several days ago. Even went back in and verified it remained as selected. Also noted that the THREAD needs to be watched as well and that had been selected when creating this thread. Have not done the other that you have suggested, yet.

Mate, did you follow my input on #17 page 1, and what results or not did it generate?
 
"MrPicky,"
YES! I did just after reading that set of instructions several days ago. Even went back in and verified it remained as selected. Also noted that the THREAD needs to be watched as well and that had been selected when creating this thread. Have not done the other that you have suggested, yet.

Ah, the email thing.... not under Alert Preferences. Those settings give you the little red flag alerts by your user icon.

Instead, check out just "Preferences" (the one above Alert Preferences) and look in the "Options" sections. The first item, "Automatically watch threads..." has a checkbox below it to receive email notifications of replies. Be sure to scroll down and check the "Save changes" button too.

This may or may not work on the current running thread, not sure. But it should set future threads. I thought it was defaulted to be turned on because I had to turn it off when I first got on here. There may be an option when starting a new thread whether to receive email, not sure about that either because I don't start many threads.
 
Agreeing with @wizardfromoz above, let me also emphasize again that as a new user, you are in danger of hosing up your system when partitioning and installing (versus running a Live DVD/USB or using a virtual machine). Be sure you have solid backups of your Windows system and critical files. You recognized your danger when the PCLOS installer offered you "Use entire disk" and that is good. Linux may or may not offer you a "Are you sure?" option... and many people make decisions when they do not fully understand the choices and the consequences.

So, I take it that this computer is now not bootable, right? Or maybe you still have the grub> command prompt? Your photo seems to show that you have 4 partitions set up as Linux already (Ext2/3/4). Here is a guess, and only a guess... when you run the PCLOS install and you get to the partitioning screen, you may have to CLICK on one of those red partitions (Ext2/3/4) and then choose the "Use existing partitions" option, the first choice. It MAY have said there was not enough space simply because you did not choose a space. I'm not familiar with the PCLOS installer, so again I only offer this as a guess. All 4 of those partitions look large enough (about 20GB each) to hold the PCLOS system, but none of the 4 partitions are marked in dark blue (as shown in the other options below, where the installer PLANS to put PCLOS).

If the guess above will let you choose one of those partitions, you may at a further point be given the option on where to put the GRUB bootloader, and the answer to that is usually /dev/sda. You only seem to have one hard drive, so this option may not appear anyway.

If all this works, as hoped, PCLOS will install, create a new GRUB menu, and will let you also choose Windows again at boot time.

However, if you do not have good backups already for Windows and important files, you may want to think about some other options before you do anything further. We don't want you to lose data! There are various other ways to go, but we want you to have confidence in being able to restore Windows if we make a mistake in guiding you, or if you make a mistake in following our directions.

Question: Do you have Windows 7 installation DVD? Since you have a Recovery partition, I doubt that you do, but this is an easy fix to bring back Windows from a install DVD. The trick I'm thinking of may can be done by starting Windows Recovery also, but I don't want you to try that just yet either.... if you take it too far, it may re-install Windows from scratch and erase your current Windows, so you obviously don't want that. But the fix I'm thinking of simply restores the MBR for Windows, so it will boot again and forget all about the Linux that were previously installed. From there you could use Windows disk management or your partition program to clean up your system. This is just one of those "various other ways" that you can go.
 
BTW Welcome @Lazydog, I too am relative new to this forum, by a little over a week/weak? Not familiar with all of their procedures, yet. Here is my late "Happy to have you on BOARD" I am an exSailor, USS Allen M. Sumner DD-692 my ship is no longer on duty.

Hey sailor! :D I am ex-USAF, but spent my most of my time on the ground in Korea. Good times, good people.
 
"MrWhizy,"

This link is good information and some advice that can be used, but; this desktop with Win7 SP1 Professional/w all latest updates installed, has NOT any "Disk Management Tool" or any resemblance of said feature. "Disk Defragmentation" is available and scheduled to run and seems to run on schedule as my system is all "0%" with "C:" at "2%", not bad. Do not know about "Larry" (531s) is not able to get into 'Winblows' at this time because of an ERROR and is on hold for "grub rescue>" command to get it back in operation. That has been reported in greater detail earlier, not to repeat.

 
We digress a bit, but; it is also to show that we are in tune, after discharge from the Navy I joined the Texas Air National Guard, they sent me to Denver, Col. for MG-10 fire control system for the F-102 A/C. I then got a job with the Colorado Air Force Reserve out of Greeley, Col. (not sure of that spelling underlined) working in NORAD. So dual services in my background. So we are both "Fly Boys" well in partial. You must have pulled your BASIC @ Lackland, A.F.B. San Antonio, Texas, my home town.

Hey sailor! :D I am ex-USAF, but spent my most of my time on the ground in Korea. Good times, good people.
 
"MrWhizz,"

These H/Ds were setup about January, 2004 and just was giving the desktop a name and that is what came out. Also the Recovery partition should be for the latest setups, plus do have a DVD that came with my purchase, but; this was done before SP1 was produced and does not have that on the DVD but should have it in the recovery.

A Recovery partition for Windows 7 (only). I do not understand the Lake & Lakefront references, but if that is personal, fine.

Plus after all of this jumping around you should be up to speed of the fact "PCLOS" is up and fully operational. NOT going into details, just to let you know, using my Ease US Partition Master (v11.0 with life time updates) reorganized my H/D moving partitions, reformatting, changing what could be, et cetera ... It INSTALLED without a 'hick-up' nor any complaints. See(?) I do know something about these systems and how to get around issues that I cannot even explain how I got them.
 
"MrWhizy,"

That is what I had in mind, but; there are two (2) of the 'removable' types. In a slot next to my CD/DVD R/W there is a pop-open door that has five (5) slots for, SM, XD,CF/MD, SD/MINI, MS/PRO/DUO never heard of most of them, only the SD/MINI and the MS have not used this last one. This Slot, SD/MINI, is where I place the one I am using and it is shown in Ease US P/M.

The “removable” tag is often used on older equipment’s BIOS/Setup to refer to a USB device other than a USB stick, eg a connected device such as a USB (powered or unpowered) external HDD, or other storage device. I cannot be certain here.

Must admit one error, did not record on paper the Super User password from this morning and now cannot remember what I used. Do I just do a reinstall and create that password again? Should work.
 
...but; this desktop with Win7 SP1 Professional/w all latest updates installed, has NOT any "Disk Management Tool"

The article Wizard linked gave a good way to find the tool... did it not work? Here are a couple of other ways to get there. This tool is built in to Windows 7, so I'll be surprised if it's not there.

1. Click your Start button, and immediately type: diskmgmt.msc and then hit Enter. That's about the quickest way. Copy/Paste should work, but if you type this manually be sure you see the "." (dot) between diskmgmt and the msc parts.

2. Click your Start button, right-click on Computer, click Manage (near the top), then click Disk Management. If you don't see it, click the little arrow icon next to Storage to expand it... Disk Management is inside there.

It is not the best tool by any means, but it does allow creating, deleting, and resizing Windows-type partitions. It is NOT good to use on any Linux partition at all (except it will delete them).
 
Happy to hear that PCLOS is up and running for you now. Good job! Also good that you have a Windows DVD, if needed.

Did you find the setting for getting email notifications? And did it work?

Texas... yes, I don't think there are any exceptions to spending time at Lackland for Air Force recruits. I was there in early '78. I also spent about 6 months in San Angelo at Goodfellow AFB for tech school in '79.
 
All, found out the boot Menu LILO will not work with everything set as default. All that happened is maybe fifteen (15) lines of problems, no sync, et cetera . . . and would not respond to keyboard nor mouse. Power switch is all that could be used, reboot, reinstall, use all default to get it back up. Using psswrd this time . . .
 
"MtMod, atanere,"

I did do a search for 'disc*, disk*.' various ways of spelling not only from the Start button search but also within C:Windows\system32\ where those types of files are usually located with nothing found. Using that title you gave did show the one mentioned by "MrWhizy."

I do not need that feature from Windblows, my copy of Ease US Partition Master is more powerful and my knowledge of how to use it is unlimited. That software saved my butt in repartitioning and merging them to get that system working.

In partial:
Click your Start button, and immediately type: diskmgmt.ms

Thank you for this information and I feel sure some other can use it to their benefit.
Edited by: LxCeeAB:
PS: Neglected to mention, today a small thunder boomer came through and YES! the power did go off not once but several times and LUCKILY was not using "Larry" (531s) at that time.
 

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