On Thu, May 11, 2000 at 04:17:09PM +0530, Raju Mathur typed:
> hda1 2G Linux
> hda2 2G NT with Windows95 bootloader on boot record
> hda3 2G '95
> hda rest (13G) free
>
> However, if I make an extended partition on the rest of the disk, the
> Winduhs boot fails... C: is readable, but it refuses to access D: with
> ``unreadable media byte'' and drops me into a MS-DUH prompt.
The behaviour of DOS and WINXX is very cranky when it finds more than
one primary partition which it can understand (i.e which it can assign
a drive letter).
The sequence in which drive letters are assigned is: (starting from C:)
1) Primary partition from which you booted becomes Drive C:
2) Primary of Disk 2 if present (hdb) with its Active flag set - D:
3) same way for drive Drives 3 & 4
5) Extended partition logical drives in Drive 1 (hda5...)
6) Extended partitions of Drives 2,3,4
7) Non-active primary partitions of Drive 1
8) Non-active primary partitions in drives 2,3,4..
I'm not sure about the exact sequence in steps 7 & 8 in case of
multiple non-active primary partitions on more than one drive.
I have a system where I have 2 primaries (1 plain PCDOS, 1 Win98) and 4
logical drives in the extended partition. If I make the DOS partition active
and boot from it, it becomes C, and the Win98 partition is H. If I boot
Win98, the DOS partition is H: & the Win partition C:
> Removing the extended partition fixes the problem... Winduhs boots
> normally again and D: is accessible. Why should making an extended
> partition make 95 complain about ``unreadable media byte''s on
> existing partitions?
>
When Winduhs discovers an extended Partition, it probably assumes that
you have an unformatted D: drive there. And since the bootloader
assumes that your OS is on drive D:, it cannot load it. (Try doing a
"DIR E:" in the MS-DUH mode with the ext.partition present.. you'll
probably find your "D:" drive data there)
> Anyone seen anything like this? Know a solution? I'd sure like to
> use some of the remaining 13GB in the disk for constructive purposes!
Best thing to do is to kill your hda3 and re-install Win95 and NT on
hda2 itself (If you really want to keep them). Then make an extended
partition combining the present hda3 and the empty space. Make a
logical drive of 2GB inside it and allocate to WinXX if necessary. And
enjoy the luxury of the additional 13GB !!)
Kala
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