SOLVED Failed installaton question

Hi
I downloaded Zorin OS8, burned it onto DVD and installed it alongside my XP OS. It failed to complete the instal so I tried again. It failed again. I spotted a slight flaw on the DVD surface so I burned another DVD. This time it installed correctly and I have Zorin working nicely.
My problem is that I now have two unwanted partial instals of Zorin in two partitions which are taking up space on the HD. How can I delete them? I ran the partition app and, quite frankly, am unable to make any sense of what the app shows. Any help would be much appreciated.
My second problem is that the version of Thunderbird included with Zorin works fine except it wont allow me to delete emails. Any one know a solution to this? I would add that I am running Zorin OS8 on another computer and Thunderbird works properly on that.
Hoping for some solutions I can understand.
Many thanks
Jim

Hi
I suggest that you open the GParted Partition Manager and take a screenshot of the HDD partitions so that someone can look it, what you have there and give further help what to do. I do not use Thunderbird so I am unable to comment anything to that. I hope that someone who uses it can give some help to that.

Hi, as henriolavi has pointed out, a screenshot would be most helpful - how to do that here:

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v385833212XzmANbj

As to the Thunderbird issue it may tie in with the failed installs somewhere - to remove and reinstall, open a terminal (Menu | Accessories | Terminal) and enter:

Code:

sudo apt-get purge thunderbird && sudo apt-get install thunderbird

This will remove your current install and install thunderbird afresh - also be sure to update your system after the install with the commands:

Code:

sudo apt-get update && suso apt-get dist-upgrade

and reboot the machine.

Hi
Thank you both for the quick response.

I purged thunderbird, reinstalled it and updated the system as suggested but still cannot delete individual emails. I found that I can move emails to Local Folders/trash so can delete that way but seems a convoluted way of doing it.

Attached is a screen shot as requested:


The only items I recognise are 'Internal' which must be the OS environment for my Windows XPPro installation and 'HP_RECOVERY' which allows me to recover the XP installation.
I take it that the other entries are the two failed Zorin installations and the functioning Zorin OS8.

I wiould be grateful for any help to identify and delete the unwanted partitions. Maybe that will also solve the thunderbird problem.

Jim

Your HDD partitions looks little messy. The reason for that is that you installed Zorin many times to different partitions created by the installer software. In the extended partition there are valid partitions sda 9, I suppose that it is the working Zorin due to it is mounted to "root" there and sda 6 the Linux swap partition. sda 5,7 and 8 are those failed invalid installations.

Now there is very little free space for your Zorin os. (2,6 GiB). What you should do is that you back up all your data just to be sure that you want not to loose it and then change the partitions so that you delete all those invalid partitions and make more space for your Zorin os. You could have there a separate Home partition for data storing according to the partitioning guide to keep your data saved during re-installation or upgrading the os. To avoid that the installation software makes these additional partitions there, so it must be installed as replacing the existent operating system on the HDD. If you do not use Windows so much any more so you could also take some 10 -15 GiB more space to the Zorin from that sda1 partition.

Installation guide using "Something else" method just to make a new installation if needed.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4848

Here is a complete guide for partitioning
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2601

Partitioning may require some training but follow the guides and make it carefully so you will succeed in doing that.

If you intend still using XP I would definitely be disabling the network card/wireless card - and work off-line. If you can live without XP, backup all your data and install Zorin but make sure that:

1. Everything works ok in 'live' mode.

2. You install with a 'wired' connection to the router.

Hi
All many nail biting moments I have managed to delete all the unwanted partitions - see screen shot. I then reinstalled Zorin from scratch.



This seems to have tidied up the mess. Any comments on the new format would be welcome.

I am running XPPro as dual boot. This arrangement seems to work OK. I'll use Zorin for all web sites involving my money and I'll use XPPro for non financial apps such as CAD, astronomy etc.

Despite deleting the failed Zorin installations Thunderbird still won't allow me to delete individual emails.

Thanks again for all your help.

Jim

Into my eyes that seems to be a working partition solution. However there is not so much space for Zorin. According to Wolfmans installation guide there could also be a separate partition for "Home" to keep the data safely stored there over a new installation of the operating system to an other partition. I believe that this works better if you have not more space for Zorin in your HDD. You have to take just care of backing up the stored data when you make a new installation.

I don't know what can be the reason for the Thunderbird problem. You can try to remove and re-install it if there is some bug in that software.

Well for the sake of other Windows users, I would remove XP OR disable the network if you intend to keep using XP for 'other things'

Hi

Re inability to delete emails in Thunderbird

I read this fix on the OpenMailBox.org forum subscribed by maycne.sonahoz.

The fix which amazingly worked for me is:

In order to fix it, you need to create a sub-folder for your Inbox(s), then delete that folder and empty the Trash.

Perhaps Mozilla can provide a proper solution,

Regards

Jim

Good, nice to hear that you have all working now. Can this be marked now as SOLVED ?

Is there a special way of marking this post SOLVED or is it simply a statement from me?

Hi, just go to your original post at the start of this thread, click on the 'Edit' button above the smilies, Place your cursor to the left of the Subject title and type in [SOLVED] then click on the 'Submit' button below the post window!