Why does only Puppy boot? and nothing else?

Conpaq Presario, used to run Windows XP 1 GB ram - got very sick because New Tecnology Loader is missing. (I have not been able to overcome that one yet.)
But -
I can't load Gentoo, or Ubuntu, or Edubuntu, or Knoppix - the only thang that will boot up is Puppy 2.17 !
Now why would that be?
Not that I mind Puppy - but I can't figure out how to work a lot of things in Puppy. Such as how to get into my Cruzer or my flash frive.

 

Do you have BIOS seeing both C & D at boot?

You may not have the settings to boot from CD set.

 

The area where the boot priority SHOULD be located is blank. I tried puching "Load defaults" but nothing shows.
One thing that I did find out is - the recovery disks that HP sells you for about $35 are a one use item. During the second useage, theyare corrupted.

 

Are you wanting a dual boot system?

You need to load LILO or GRUB each utilities to tell the system to load your OS.

I am not sure what puppy uses. Ubuntu uses GRUB.

Recovery? I did it twice on my wife's system. I am not following you. Maybe you have a bad hard drive.

If you are needing to go back to Microsoft on the system, post in Software and the geeks there will help you.

 

From the beginning - Presario has NTLDR missing. Press Ctr+ALT+DEL to restart. Tried HPRecovery suite that I used last time. Recovery CDs are corrupted. Won't work.
Tried various Linux OS.
Now the good part: Freespire, Gentoo, Edubuntu nor Ubuntu CDs would not load.
Only Puppy will load.
Why?

 

Just use the 'drives' icon on the desktop and mount them

I use Puppy a lot for rescuing files on broken Windows systems, but I prefer the community edition one, because it has a much slicker desktop than the default Puppy. 2.15 CE is the latest

 

I am not sure why nothing will load.

Can you install Puppy? or are you using it live?
http://www.puppylinux.org

I had fits with my Compaq and it was an unseated memory stick. It would randomly reboot itself.

 

Wrong answer.

Please read threads closely.

 

Lord a mercy! No wonder a person should not keep a hammer anywhere near a computer!
I would like to install Puppy - dual boot - on the Presario, but Ido not understand GRUB. Must I be in Windows To do this? Or can I do it while booted with Puppy? Puppy wants to know WHERE to place the LinuxOS - so far I cannot tell hda1 2 maybe 16
thank you for your views.

 

I'm on it right now. Interesting stuff.

 

hda1 = C in Windows - never install Linux on hda1, if you want to dual boot, because you'll overwrite Windows

The partition naming system in Linux is logical up to a point

hda means the first HD as a whole - hda1 means the first partition i.e C

hdb would be the second HD (if installed)

sda would be a SCSI or USB drive

You would expect D (a second partition on the first drive) to be hda2, but it's not
It's hda5. I assume hda2, 3 and 4 are reserved for 3 more primary partitions.
The sequence is logical after that though

On this PC I'm using now I have three Windows partitions and 6 Linux

hda1 (C) Windows XP 64
hda5 (D) Windows Vista , although it becomes C when booting Vista!
hda6 (E) Data partition
hda7 Linux Swap
hda8 First installed Linux system
hda9-12 4 other installed Linux systems

Notice only one swap partition is needed

 

Sata as well.

 

thank you.

 

I've taken all of this in. My HP recovery suite was probably corrupted by bad thoughts or something.
I'll go into GRUB and see where (Except hda1) toplace poor little Puppy.
I also registed at pclinusos.com - that one sound reallyinteresting.
Thankyou to all.