Format my harddrive

Hi to all,
First I want to thank all of you for your great help. I installed Redhat 7.1 in my harddrive, the OS is installed but it is giving me login incorrect and I am sure I putting the right login and password, now I want to install RedHat 9 but when I put the CD and reboot, I still see RedHat 7.1, Yes I changed the reboot to the CD but still.
Please help me I want to start studying the OS.
Thanks in advance for the help.

Are you sure that the RH 9 CD is bootable? Did you burn the ISO yourself?

It should be a bootable CD I got it from my instructor and he is out of the states right now, I will chcck the CD tonight when I go home thanks for the hint.

On the 7.1 install, reboot the machine into single user mode and use passwd to reset the password to a correct one and then you ought to be able to reboot again and log in successfully.

Hi Mastermind, I will try it when I go home, I am still working right now, thank you so much.

I thought the question was about an upgrade?

It was, but he also said he wasn't able to log in.

He doesn't need to login to do an upgrade.

No, but the single user thing is how to fix the login problem.

True, but why bother if you want to upgrade?

I don't know. Maybe then he could get in and reburn his downloaded cd to do the upgrade (unless he has another computer). And it's a good future reference.

Hi web master and master mind,
Thank you for your input, I installed Red Hat 7.1 so I can study for the RHCE but after installation I was not able to boot the system, and I was not able to login even though I still remember my password, thats why I thought of upgrading to Red Hat 9 after I got it from my instructor or helper at work, today is my day off and I just finished installing RedHat 9 and now I am looking for a study guide or a good book to start my goal. Thanks again for your input.

If you're studying for the RHCE, you really should download redhat enterprise 5 since that is going to be what is used in the test. You can download an evaluate version from redhat, or if you can get one of the newer versions of the fedora core that will make it easier to get updates and whatnot. I just tried the RHCT test a few weeks ago, and missed it by just one little thing in the troubleshooting. I'm kind of limited to what all I can tell you about the test because they make you sign and initial lots and lots of papers before the test, so that they know you agree not to tell everyone what all is on the test.

As far as your problem now, does it get into the boot process at all or just not do anything? There are a number of things that could cause that to go funny. If it doesn't do anything, it could be your master boot record, but if it starts to boot up then fails it could be your grub\lilo (which ever you are using). You say you are not able to log in...do you actually get to a log in prompt?

There are tons of good books out there, if you shop around you should be able to find one for redhat or fedora core. And then there are always the man pages too. Are you an RHCT already?

I am not RHCT, I just finished my AA degree in CISCO networking technology and taking a BS degree in University of Phoenix in computer information system security. I took one class for Linux, I like it and I want to be RHCE, you may think I am crazy but I am not. Any way, now my desktop is working fine using Redhat 9 but as you said I will look for redhat enterprise 5. Once I get the cert. I will tell you, thank you so much for your help, you are the best and I wish you all the luck to get your RHCT and RHCE.

I would definantly HIGHLY recommend doing the RHCT first, although it's not required. If you have good prior linux experience, you may be able to get away without the RH033 class, but doing the RH133 would be a good idea.