Hi all,
I had my system with Windows 98 and Mandrake Linux (1 GB. for W98 and 0.5 Gb. for
Linux). I tried to install Suse Linux 6.3 onto the 0.5 Gb partition, and accidentaly
turned off the computer. From that moment, I was not able to boot the system. (A K-6
II 450Mhz) Itried to reinstall W98 and Linux from scratch both, but the computer
wouldn't run Lilo properly, due to (I thought in that moment) master boot record
problems.
However I now think that the problem is a drive geometry one, as you can see in the
following details (they are very long: I tried to add all the informationn I could)
*******My question is:**************
In linux FDISK I have the following possibilities to chane geometry:
b: move beginning of data in a partition
c: change the number of cylinders
d: print the raw data in the partition table
e: list the extended partitions
h: change the number of heads
m: print this menu
p: print the partiton table
q: quit without saving changes
r: return to main menu
s: change the number of sectors
v: verify the partition table
w: write table to disk and exit
**May I use these to restore the geometry of my drive?**
***************************************
Now there goes all the information of my HD:
The BIOS only sees 1,057 MB, the HDD auto-detection sees a 1,614 MB Hard D rive, which
iscorrect. I had to install *only* W98 and it works quite nice, but with FDISK it only
saw 500 MB in my drive, although when I formatted the disk, I obtained 1.5GB.
ZERODISK (a Quantum utility) informs of the following data for my hard drive:
Cyl 781
Heads 64
Sectors 63
MB 1612.3
(apparently, these data are correct, at least of what I remember before having the
�disgrace� with my HD)
When I set LBA mode in my BIOS and run MSDOS FDISK it only reads 1057 MB. That is why
I ran Linux FDISK, which gives more details: It says that "the number of cylinders is
set to 1564(?). This is larger than 1024, and may cause problems ..." Afterwards, it
says "Verifying the partiton table: 62 unallocated sectors"
When I boot the computer, the information given by the BIOS is:
PRI MASTER DISK: lba, udma 2, 1057 MB
When I format (W98) the hard drive I get this (translating from Spanish):
Verifying format of the disk
saving the wrong clusters...
Complete
Verifying 1.007.96M
After formatting: 1054846976 bytes capacity with NO errors
If I run Scandisk, I obtain 257.532 clusters and no errors.
After DOS Formatting, it says C: is 1540 MB but total space on disk is 1008 MB =
1048...etc bytes
After this, I think that the problem with my disk is related to the geometry settings
(the BIOS sees my disk through these settings)
I installed first Windows, and Linux RedHAt 6.0. No proble with W98, but when
installing Linux, I could not install LILO inte MBR, so I decided to make a bootable
floppy: I could use both systems well. The problem is that when I tried to isntall
manually lilo (editing lilo.conf) and, after executing /sbin/lilo as root, I got this:
Warning: device 0x0303 exceeds cylinder limit
geo_comp_addr: Cylinder number is too big (1024>1023)
After this, I could not reboot (W98 nor Linux). Typing FDISK/MBR didn�t help, nor
asigning the DOS partition a bootable flag in DOS FORMAT.
At first I thought the problem was in a misconfiguration of my MBR. I thought my HD
was completely lost: although nowadays a 1.5 GB drive is not much, it cost me 120
euros two years ago, and don�t feel like spending more money (even though with that
money you can get now a 10 GB drive... I�ve had expenses lately!)
I�ve been trying all possible configurations:
Hda1�Linux
Hda2�swap
Hda3�Windows98
Hda1-Windows98
Hda2�Linux
Hda3�Swap
Etcaetera, but without results.
W98 FDISK did not allow me to erase the VFAT partition�I don�t know how, its name
(whish was before �disco-c�) was now �Stop thinki�, I guess it was �Stop thinking�. I
could not write the partition�s name, so I could not erase it. After all this, I
erased everything with linux FDISK, and with W98 FDISK created a 900 MB for W98, and
with Linux FDISK a 600MB for Linux and 38 MB for swap. I install everithing again and
--- crashes again when I try to install lilo
==========================
I found the following data on the sticker attached to the HD:
1 6AT P/N ST16A011 REV 02-C
I also have the BIOS details:
Award Modular BIOS 4.51 PG
(At boot time appears this:
ROM PCI/ISA BIOS (2A5LEH2B)
Standard CMOS Setup
Award Software Inc.)
According to my BIOS (HDD autodetect) my HD configuration is the following:
If I select NORMAL mode,
Size: 1614
Cyls: 3128
Head: 16
PRECOMP: 65535
LANDZ: 3127
Sector: 63
Mode Normal
If I select LBA mode (suggested by the BIOS)
Size: 1614
Cyls: 782
Head: 64
PRECOMP: 0
LANDZ: 3127
Sector: 63
Mode LBA
Both of them give lilo problems.
My partition table according to FDISK20 of SUSE6.3 is (NORMAL mode in HD)
Start End Start Number
of
Part Bootable Head Cyl Sector System Head Cyl Sector Sector Sectors
MB
============================================================================================
1 yes 1 0 1 0Ch 15 1023 63 63
18453869
900
2 no 0 0 0 00h 0 0 0 0 0
0
3 no 0 0 0 00h 0 0 0 0 0
0
4 no 0 0 0 00h 0 0 0 0 0
0
And this is what FDISK says:
Info: partition table inconsistency
FIPS has detected that the 'physical' start or end sector (head/cylinder/sector) do
not match with the 'logical' start/end sector. This not an error since the 'physical'
values are redundant and not used anyway. There are many configurations where the
values differ. This message is only meant to inform you that FIPS has adapted the
'physical' values according to the current drive geometry. So don't be alarmed by an
unexpected cylinder range.
-----------------------------
Warning: partition does not end on a cylinder boundary: partition 1
All partitions should end on a cylinder boundary
OK
Boot sector:
Bytes per sector: 512
Sectors per cluster: 8
Reserved sectors: 32
Number of FATS: 2
Number of root directory entries: 0
Number of sectors (short): 0
Media descriptor byte: F8h
Sectors per FAT: 1799
Sectors per track: 63
Drive heads: 16
Hidden sectors: 63
Number of sectors (long): 1843569
Physical drive number: 80h
Signature: 29h
Checking boot sector...
Warning: Number of drive heads incorrect: 16 instead of 32.
The number of drive heads in the boot sector does not match the actual drive geometry
reported by the BIOS
Do you want to correct this? (y/n) ---> I type y
-----------------------------------
OK
Checking FAT ... OK
Searching for free space
Do you want to make a backup copy of your root and boot
sector before proceeding? (y/n) ---> I type y
Writing a file a:\rootboot.000
Enter start cylinder for new partition (361-914):
Use the cursor keys to choose the cylinders, <enter> to continue
Old partition Cylinder New partition
355.4 361 545.3 MB
(Here it tries to shrink hda1) I type <enter>
------------------------------------
First cluster: 90512
Last cluster: 229991
Testing if empty ... OK
New partition table:
Start End Start Number
of
Part Bootable Head Cyl Sector System Head Cyl Sector Sector Sectors
MB
============================================================================================
1 yes 1 0 1 0Ch 31 360 63 63
727713
355
2 no 0 0 0 00h 15 914 63 727776
1115856
544 0
3 no 0 0 0 00h 0 0 0 0 0
0
4 no 0 0 0 00h 0 0 0 0 0
0
Checking root sector ...
Warning: Partition does not end on cylinder boundary: partition 2
All partitions should end on a cylinder boundary
Press any key
------------------------------------------
OK
Do you want to continue or reedit the partition table? (c/r)
(As I don�t see it ver clear, I type �r� and it CRASHES)
====================
I changed to LBA mode, and with Linux FDISK, I get this:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/tmp/hda1 * 1 915 921784+ c Win95 FAT32(LBA)
Partition 1 does not end on a cylinder boundary:
phys=(1023,15,63) should be (1023,31,63)
====================
When trying to install linux with Suse 6.2, I get this table (it�s in Spanish, but
easy to understand):
Bloques Inode Formato Tipo fs Pto. anclaje Part
dev/hda1 921784 no vfat W95 FAT32
dev/hda2 614400 4096 no ext2 / Linux
With virtual console alt-F4, I get this message when formatting the linux partition
(there are others, but this one is most alarming):
EXT2-fs error (device ide0(3,2)):
ext2_check_inodes_bitmap: Wrong free inodes count in superblock
stored=109778, counted=107754
======================
Results of a Quantum diagnose utility:
i------------------------------� Find-ATA v1.0 �-------------------------------�
� �
� Drive: QUANTUM FIREBALL ST1.6A Port: Primary (01F0h) �
� Serial #: 851716531365 CMOS Type: 46 Unit: 0 - Master �
� �
� Hardware DOS Current Max ECC: 4 bytes �
� Cylinders: 3128 1024 3128 �
� Heads: 16 32 16 �
� Sectors: 63 63 63 �
� Capacity: 1,614,348,288 1,056,964,608 1,614,348,288 �
� �
� Available Information �
� R/W Multiple Mode: Yes 16 sectors Max Current: 16 sectors/block �
� LBA Mode: Yes 3153024 �
� DMA Mode: Yes Single: 0 (0111) Multi: 0 (0111) 480 nsec �
� Advanced PIO Mode: Yes (0011) +,-IORDY: 120 nsec, 120 nsec �
� �
� Default PIO Mode: 2, 240 nsec, up to 8.33 MB/Sec �
� �
� Buffer: 81 KBytes Type: A dual ported multi-sectored buffer capable of �
� simultaneous transfers with a read caching capability. �
� �
�-------� Copyright 1994 Seagate Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. �-------�
Drive : 0 BIOS CHS : 1024 32 63 = 1,056,964,608 bytes (1057.0 MB)
PROBLEM: Partition is defined larger than the current BIOS support.
The Partition record calls for 1614.32 MBytes, however,
the BIOS Int13 shows only 1056.96 MBytes are supported.
Partition # : 1
Partition Type : 0Ch - Unknown
Active Status : YES
Start CHS : 0 1 1
End CHS : 1023 31 63
Sectors offset : 63
Number of Sectors : 3,152,961 = 1,614,316,032 bytes (152.7% of bios)
DOS boot record is not valid using start sector number 1818566753
First partition Bios Parameter Block on Drive 0
Vendor : � D �
Bytes Per Sector : 21010
Sectors Per Cluster : 0
Reserved Sectors : 0
Fat Copies : 190
Root Entries : 3
Total Sectors-1 : 17,408 (8.91 MB)
Media : 00h
Sectors Per Fat : 4762
Sectors Per Track : 89
Heads : 0
Hidden Sectors-1 : 958
Hidden Sectors-2 : 0
Total Sectors-2 : 312,279,108 (159886.90 MB)
Physical Drive Number : 70h
Extended Boot Signature : 00h
Volume Serial Number : 0003-BE00
BPB Volume Label : D � � 5%, (root dir volume: DISCO-C)
File System ID : � -
Named System Files : $ M . l, � $ � �.
ID Code : 0000h
===============================
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