Problem...

[Derek Atkins]

You never said what kernel you tried to use?  What kernel comes with
Slackware 2.1?  Did you try Slackware 2.1.1 (I believe this is the
most recent release).

There were problems with many of the Linux 1.1.X kernels where it
would swap into video-ram, so if you were running X, or were low on
RAM, it could crash your machine.  There were also some floppy driver
bugs which would corrupt your hard drive in 1.1.41-1.1.47 (fixed in
49, I believe).

I would recommend loading Linux 1.1.90 or 1.1.94 on your machine
before rebooting...

-derek