Well, I really did it this time. I attempted to install Redhat 7.3 on my 20Gb hard drive that already contained one primary fat32 partition, and one logical drive in the extended partition; also fat32. I used Partition Magic 7.0 to resize and make about 2Gbs of empty space in between the two fat32 partitions. I then began the installation of Linux, when the installation got to the point where it was time to create the Linux partitions (ex3), I chose the option that allowed the installation program to create the partitions for me. The rest of the installation proceeded without a hitch. However, when it came time to restart the computer; the computer froze during the point when the message reading “Now verifying data.” I assume this is the point where the bios hands control over to the Os? At any rate, what I would like to do is obtain a Linux boot disk, which contains a version of Linux-fdisk, which can delete the ex3 partitions I created. I have already deleted the two fat32 partitions (not a big deal have backups). But I am on able to remove the ex3 partitions with MS fdisk. Also, I was able to get my computer started (with a dos disk 98se) by unplugging my second hard-drive which contains my Windows 98 swap file as well as my documents. I assume that the reason my computer would not boot is due to the fact I had too many primary partitions? Any advice on this topic will be greatly appreciated.

Actually you should be able to delete linux partition with dos fdisk, they show up as "non-dos" partitions. If you are really not able to delete them with dos fdisk, you may be right with assuming that the partition layout is the cause of your boot problems. Unless you installed a new boot manager into the mbr, the stock win9x mbr searches for an "active" partition, and hands boot control to the boot sector of this partition. This mbr is part of dos. If the partition layout doesn't conform to dos restrictions (or is otherwise corrupted), the dos mbr will fail to boot the active partition. Now for your question: There are some floppy linux distribs you could try, or you can use pretty much any boot disks of any distrib, they should all include some sort of fdisk prog. My personal favorites are the slackware boot disks. From ftp.slackware.com, from the slackware 8.0 distrib (8.1 requires multiple root disks, which sucks), you should try the bare.i boot disk, with the color.gz root disk. Write both to a floppy and boot from the boot disk. After the root disk is loaded, you can log in and start fdisk. You probably want to use cfdisk instead of plain fdisk, as it has a nicer interface.

Actually when I try to use MS-Dos fdisk, it does not see the ex3 partitions at all. When I type fdisk at the prompt, the program stops with only a blinking cursor towards the bottom of the screen. Partition Magic on a bootable-disk can delete the fat32partitions, but it also does not see the ex3 partitions. Also, thanks for the advice dfx