Re: [gNewSense-users] Computer Won't Boot

[Sam Geeraerts]

Harry wrote:
> When it I type "p", I see three valid partitions:
>
> Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes 255 heads, 63
> sectors/track, 38913 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 =
> 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000526f0
>
> Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System /dev/sda1
> 1       37998   305218903+  83  Linux /dev/sda2           37999
> 38913     7349737+   5  Extended /dev/sda5           37999
> 38913     7349706   82  Linux swap / Solaris
>
> Should I continue the steps as normal anyways?

I just noticed that the cat command said /dev/sda1. That should be
/dev/sda if you want to overwrite your partition table.

> And also, just to be clear, I should let cat /dev/zero > /dev/sda1
> run for a few seconds, then use Ctrl-C to stop it, or should I let it
> run in the background and create a new terminal tab for the other
> steps?

Use Ctrl-c. You don't want to have 2 processes writing to your disk at 
the same time.