I have been trying to make the switch from windows 2003 to FC4 and seem to be runing into issues. I formatted the drive and upon installing FC4 got an error message (cant quite remember exactly what it was) but upon trying to exit the instalation the machine rebooted. I now get an the afore mentioned error. How can I recover the system or go back to my installation process?

Have you tried putting your install disk back in and starting the installation again?

Also most if not all distros come with a repair mode for the system. Usually you can find out how to access repair mode by hitting F1...etc. Or you could try using a live CD such as Knoppix to do repairs graphically.

Alas, it may just be easier to start the install again from the beginning.

Yep I tired putting the cd in to have it boot from that and/or trying to reinstall but same thing. i even tried placing the windows 2003 cd back in to see if I could get it to boot from that, still nothing. I went to bios and made sure it was trying to boot from cd and also fiddled with the hard drive settings (changed it from auto to large etc). Not sure how to get it to recognize anything.

Since you can reproduce the error message, it might help us if you could write it down and type it into a message here so we can see exactly what GRUB is complaining about. (I assume it's a GRUB message, but maybe not.)

If it is a GRUB message, I suspect that it's telling you that the path to the OS in /boot/grub/grub.conf is incorrect.

Have you entered "linux rescue" from you boot CD prompt? Did it find you installation?

You should be able to boot from a CD, no matter what, although you may have to press and hold the "C" key on the keyboard or somesuch to make it do it.

Unfortunately, as others have said, your original posting is lacking in details, and without details no one can help you. Such as:

• Are you trying to achieve a dual-boot configuration?
• Just how far did you get in the installation process? (Did you, for example, "wipe the sucker clean?" Might you have toasted the disk partition table?)
• What, exactly, was "the error message you can't remember what it was?"
• What kind of system, etc...

It may be a little too-late now, but when you are doing an installation or any sort of upgrade, keep a running diary. Write down all of the details. Keep a checklist and check things off. Be positively anal-retentive about writing things down as you do something like this. The hairs you save will be your own!

My apologies for the lack of detail. Basically, I wiped the disk clean to get rid of windows and inserted the FC4 disk1 to set up Fedora. I went through the whole deal up until I got to the point where it asks you want specifically I wanted to install (ex. server, apps, gui...) at that point I checked off what I wanted and hit next and was confronted with an error message that I did not write down. I canceled out of that and another error message came up and I again canceled out of that and at that point the systme rebooted and that is where I stand. I have tried using WIndows CDs, Fedora CDs, Rescue disk cd, and nothing gets me past the error loading operating systme message. i also tried tweaking the bios (disabling cache, changing the settings for the HD from auto to large and lbc) nothing seems to alleviate the situation.

As I am new to the computer world, I am at a loss of what to try next.

Maybe an Hardware error. Try another CD-DVD-Drive if You have more than one.

Turns out that my mother had the same problem this past week. Computer was working fine with this particular setup for about a year and a half. Anyway she turned the 'puter on and got the "no os installed, please insert disk and press enter" or something to that effect. None of the live cd's I gave would work and neither would the XP disk.

To make a long story short I told her to change the IDE cable and she was back in business.
Always go with the simplest fix first is what I tell her.

So, give it a try, it certainly can't hurt.

I've had a strange problem... I've downloaded the iso images twice and burned them to cds, but when I have them checked before running an install, they flunk the check. This seems bad. Anyone else encountering this problem?

I want to upgrade to FC4 so that I have an easier time with my wireless card.