its getting frustrating. i have no idea how to install mandrake linux. i downloaded all 3 iso files and burned them to cd's and whenever i try to install it, it says i need to restart, well ill do that but then the hd just boots up.

i also dont know how to make a boot floppy.

i changed the bios so it would boot the cd rom first and that still didnt work.

does ANYONE have a clue how i can install this? im sick of windows 2k pro.

If your computer is old (more than 5 years) it may not be able to boot from CD. The BIOS can have an option to boot from CD, but that might only work with a few models of CD-players. I've gone through that purgatory with an old computer once. It involved pulling hair and use cursing. Then I made a boot floppy...

I think that there are some utilities on your Mandrake CD to make a boot floppy from Windows. Try explore your CD from Windows.

Good luck!
Martin

ive already made a boot floppy.

i formatted a floppy disk, did what mandrake told me to do, wrote the files on the floppy, then restarted the pc with the floppy and cd in, and nothing, booted windows 2k pro up.

should i change my boot configuration so it boots my floppy and cdrom instead of my hd???

What are your settings for boot sequence in BIOS? It should be something like A / CD-ROM / C (in that order).

Do you remember how you did when you installed Windows on the machine?

Martin

What is the exact message when says need to restart? Do you at least get the first install boot screen? Make sure your CD's have directories and not just a single ISO image. If the later, you did not burn the ISO files correctly.

To create a boot floppy stick the 1st CD into a running windows PC. A window will auto popup. Navigate to the CD drive /images directory and select the cdrom image. The click the create button. You can also navigate to the cd dosutils directory and run the rawritewin.exe program.

oh, great... yea i burned the f*cking single iso files to a cd.. i had no idea that i had to take all the files from the archive.

well ive got the 3 cd's downloaded from an ftp site. it has all the files/folders. is there any other way i might be able to install??

To burn an ISO to CD depends on the software. http://www.linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/howtoburn.html

You can install the ISOs from a hard drive if you have a FAT32 partition to store the files on. Create the hd.img boot floppy.

i have NTFS partition.

but i have all 3 cd's downloaded, the folders and files... is there no way to create a boot floppy and install it even though i have them on my pc?

ok, if you have 3 more blank CD's calm down, just re-burn the ISO's but using software like Nero or Alcohol 120% which will basically extract the files from the ISO archive for you and put them on CD if you select the "burn image" option
your having NTFS could be a problem when it comes to trying to locate the files on your HDD from the installer, i know you can get a module to enable reading from NTFS partitions but whether you can get it running before/during the install im not sure, burning a new set of CD's might be your best bet

is there any option to locate the ISO files on CDROM's?