Linux FC5-CD&DVD

[JTH]

Hi there,I am a complete novice to Linux but I am determined to stick with it with a little help. Since having FC5 installed my CD-rom and DVD-rom both open and close but I cannot record any work and there is no sound when playing music. All were working perfectly with Windows XP. If the solution involves getting into a Terminal Window, how would I do this?
I have chcked that settings are not set to 'mute' and that's about my limit at the moment.

[techieMoe]

I don't mean to sidestep your problem, but have you considered installing a newer version of Fedora? The latest is version 8.

Fedora Project

You're less likely to have hardware issues the newer the OS.

[JTH]

I hadn't thought of upgrading to FC8. If I did which would be the easiest way, to download the program or buy the CD?. The FC5 I have was installed by a friend who had the disks with a magazone he bought a long while back, he never installed it on his pc and still uses Windows so he doesn't know anything about Linux really, that's why he can't help at the moment. Thank you for taking the time to reply.
Kind regards
JTH

[oz]

If you have a fast connection, downloading should be the easiest and the quickest.

The installation routine for most Linux distributions is pretty much automated these days. Just burn the ISO files as images to blank CDs, set your machine to boot from the CD drive first, put the 1st installation CD in the drive, and reboot. Follow the onscreen prompts to install. You should be able to install the new version right over the old version, using the same partitions if you want.

[JTH]

Thanks OZ,
If I can't sort my problems I'll cerainly have a go at down loading FC 8.
First though, how do I set my pc to boot from the cd drive ?.
Next, will I lose the information I already have on the spread sheets and desk top?.
Last, will I lose my Yahoo Mail ?.
Hopefully, I shall be able to carry on when I have this information.
These questions may seem elementary to you but I did say I was a complete novice and I do want to learn how to do these things.
JTH

[techieMoe]

Thanks OZ,
If I can't sort my problems I'll cerainly have a go at down loading FC 8.
First though, how do I set my pc to boot from the cd drive ?.

Some computers come with that option already set up. Others require that you change your boot order in the BIOS. To access the BIOS setup screen, hit F8 or Delete right after you hear the beep on startup. If you don't hear a beep, just repeatedly hit one of those until the screen pops up. The exact key depends on your motherboard.

Look for an option called "Boot order" or "Boot Options" and change the order to be CDROM first, then harddrive.

Next, will I lose the information I already have on the spread sheets and desk top?.

If you do a clean install (which I very highly recommend you do) then yes, all data already on your drive will be destroyed. This means that before you do any of this you should back up anything you want to keep to one or several CDs.

Last, will I lose my Yahoo Mail ?.

That depends. Do you download your email or do you just view it in the Yahoo Mail browser client? If you download it (and haven't specifically told it to keep a copy on the server) then yes, you'll lose anything you've downloaded recently.

If you only use the Yahoo Mail web client, all your mail is stored on the Yahoo server and nothing is kept locally, so you won't lose anything by reinstalling.

[JTH]

I'm back to square one, I downloaded FC 8 onto my desk top but I can't save it to disk because neither my CD or DVD are operating. It looks like I've got to get those working before I can make further progress. Anyway, the information you have given me will eventually be very useful, thank you for your help.
Regards
JTH