Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 10:56:00 +0800 From: Raymond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Phantom disks??
At 10:01 PM 25/04/2002 -0700, you wrote: >Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 05:57:02 +0100 (GMT/BST) >From: Digby Tarvin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re: [LIB] Phantom disks?? > > > > > > >The final curiosity is that Windows tells me the extended partition is > > >completely empty. If doesn't show the Linux partitions as non-DOS as > > >I would have expected, but appears not to be able to see them at all. > > > > Usually seems to show them as empty but won't allow you to erase it on the > > grounds that it isn't. I've had to use linux fdisk (or friends) to > erase an > > 83 partition before now, and micro~01 is very unhappy about formatting a > > partition it didn't fdisk (e.g. linux fdisk two partitions, the first > one a > > bootable vfat and the second a linux 83, then ask windows to format the > > first. It stomps the second...) > >Yes, I had discovered that before. I generally make sure I create each >partition with the operating system that is going to live in it. Thats important ... but also its CRITICAL that the first partition on your hard drive is created with MS-DOS FDISK. The problem is Linux FDISK (and CFDISK) looks at the first partition for anything weird (such as drive overlays). It'll completely miss the presence of an overlay if it sees a blank drive with no partitions. I found THAT out the hard way. >Hope you are right about windows not letting me create anything in >the extended partition which it shows as empty. However I am not >really game to try it. Eh? > > >I suspect if I asked it to make a logical DOS drive, it would happily > > >do so, overwriting the Linux partitions. Clearly there is some > > >compatibility > > >problem between Windows and Liniux created extended partitions which > > >means that if I wanted a Windows partition, I would have had to have > > >created that first in the extended drive. > > > > Yes, in windows/dos. Umm ... what exactly do you mean? I found that as long as the extended partition and first partition were created in Windows FDISK (not necessarily in that order ... its fine if you create the first partition with Windows FDISK then use Linux FDISK to create another 2 primaries then use Windows FDISK to create the 4th partition as an extended) then both Linux FDISK and Windows FDISK will be quite happy to populate the extended partition (although Windows freaks if you try to put more than 4 logical partitions in there, in that case you NEED to use Linux FDISK or CFDISK to create Windows partitions but as long as you've already got a Windows-FDISK-created partition in that extended partition somewhere, Linux FDISK/CFDISK seem fine). DOS FORMAT doesn't seem to care what created the partition as long as its the right type. >However I see from my program dump above that this has resulted in the >extended partition nominally finishing at the 8GB boundry. Linux seems >to have happily ignored that, presumably it uses the linear addresses >and ignores the head/cylinder/sector stuff which is invalid after 8GB :-/ Thats why you need a drive overlay. Refer to my 2 or 3 big emails about my experiences with them if you need some hints ;-) >One thing I did find with more experimenting, is that if I remove the >second FAT partition, both D: and E: disappear. So I am wondering if >Windows just doesn't like two primary FAT partitions. I do know that if you have that 8 gig problem then you WILL get inconsistent representations of the disk depending on if the program you're using to view the disk can do the translation independant of the BIOS. Such things as Windows reconing there are 6 partitions when Linux FDISK only sees 3 or vice versa whilst Norton recons the disk is unpartitioned and Partition Magic recons there is only 1 partition. Put the overlay on (and make sure any partition changing or viewing program is run once the overlay loads) and everythign seems fine. >I know Windows >FDISK will not let you create more than one. It may be that I should >have put a FAT partition in the extended partition, which is how I >had it organised before I found that it was possible to boot Linux >from the extended partition, leaving three other bootable partitions. Actually, whilst Windows FDISK won't create more than 1 primary and 4 logicals, if you use another utility (such as NT Disk Admin, Linux FDISK/CFDISK or Partition Magic) to create multiple primaries and more than 4 logicals, as long as you create them as file systems Windows can see, Win9x will be happy to see and format them ... I can use Windows to see the 4th primary partition on the very end of my disk for instance. I just make sure the overlay is active ;-) >A last clue - Linux does not seem happy to mount the Windows partition??? How are you mounting it? I just use "mount -t vfat /dev/hdaX /mnt/X" and Linux seems fine mounting any one of my Windows partitions be them the first primary, last primary, logical, above or below the 8 gig boundary, etc. ... Hope this helps! - Raymond P.S. I'm running a bit behind on the list, apologies if I'm answering questions that have already been answered! --- /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\ | | "Does fuzzy logic tickle?" | | ___ | "My HDD has no reverse. How do I backup?" | | /__/ +-------------------------------------------| | / \ a y b o t | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | | HTTP://www.raybot.net | | ICQ: 31756092 | Need help? Visit #Windows98 on DALNet! | \~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/ ************************************************************** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives -------TO UNSUBSCRIBE------- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe --------TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST------ Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **************************************************************
