Error- No such Device

[Skeeter]

I am extremely new to Linux so please excuse my ignorance.
This evening I burned Mint Helena to a CD and did the MD5sum, M5Dsum (whichever is right) check and it is good so I installed it.
I have a 150 GB harddrive that I used Partition Magic to partition 75GB on each. 75GB on C drive and 75GB on F drive.
I tried to install Mint to the 75GB on F drive but I may have goofed up somewhere. It looks like I installed it right.
However, when I reboot my PC Linux gives me some choices: Run Mint generic, Run Mint recovery, a couple of other things then Run Windows XP.
When I highlight to run Mint generic and click "enter" it gives me this "Error- no such device." It says the same if I click to Run Mint recovery. My only choice left is to run Windohs XP.
Did I partition it wrong? Should I uninstall Linux, reinstall and choose to run it along side Windows XP? Should I un-partition what I partitioned?
One more question- If I want to run Linux OS all the time- will I be able to throw Windohs XP where it belongs or will I need it for some things?
I've read a lot on the forums and everyone seems wonderful at helping us poor Micro$oft children.
Thank you in advance!

[MikeTbob]

I believe you partitioned it kinda wrong, Linux likes unformatted free space more than anything in the world. Just Delete/Fdisk F: drive, then run the installer again.

[devils casper]

We have to check Partition Structure of your Hard disk first.
Boot up from LiveCD of Linux Mint, open Terminal and execute this

sudo fdisk -l

Post output here.
* Its small L in fdisk -l.

One more question- If I want to run Linux OS all the time- will I be able to throw Windohs XP where it belongs or will I need it for some things?

It depends on you only. Alernative for most of Windows Packages are available in Linux. I would suggest you to keep Windows OS for a while and get familiar with Linux. You can remove/install any OS any time.

[Skeeter]

[QUOTE=devils casper;763601]We have to check Partition Structure of your Hard disk first.
Boot up from LiveCD of Linux Mint, open Terminal and execute this

sudo fdisk -l

Post output here.
* Its small L in fdisk -l.

I'll check the Partition Structure.
In the meantime I have done some things- not good. LOL
I booted from the Live CD to re-install mint and chose to run Linux next to Windohs. After it installed and I rebooted only Mint would load. I couldn't highlight Windohs to run it. Nothing would highlight but Mint. So I chose Mint and started up Firefox. Now I have more questions- Why wouldn't websites allow me to log in using my username and password? Why couldn't I run an .exe?
I shut down my PC and put in the Windows CD, stumbled around and fixed the boot issue so it now boots into Windows again.
Now here's where I am and I won't do anything until I receive a reply:
I have 150 GB harddrive. I have half of it as C: drive and the other half as F: drive.
I want to keep Windohs available and I want Mint available.
Should I delete the F: drive as stated in a reply above or should I keep it and re-install Mint?
When preparing to install Mint- should I choose to run it beside Windows or chose to partition manually?
Once again....Thank you!

[MikeTbob]

Post the output of the command from LiveCD, as stated above by devils casper.

sudo fdisk -l

Better safe than sorry.

[Skeeter]

Post the output of the command from LiveCD, as stated above by devils casper.

sudo fdisk -l

Better safe than sorry.

Mint is not installed.

[MikeTbob]

Yes, I know, use the CD to boot into the "Live" mode. Just stick the CD/DVD into the drive and reboot.

[Skeeter]

It said, "Unable to open."

[MikeTbob]

I'm sorry, could you clarify that? What doesn't open?

[Skeeter]

I opened Terminal and typed in this: sudo fdisk -l.
Here is parts of the result:

Disk/dev/sda:160 GB
160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cyclinders
Units= cyclinders of 16065 *
512= 8225280 bytes

Device Boot System
/dev/sdb1 * HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 HPFS/NTFS

Disk/dev/sda:160 GB
160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cyclinders
Units= cyclinders of 16065 *
512= 8225280 bytes

Device Boot System
/dev/sdb1 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 Linux
/dev/sdb6 Linus swap/Solaris