Alan,
I just ran a win98 scandisk (thorough) and defrag with startup
optimization (after running a backup, as I normally do before system level
work). Wont98 boots & operates fine, and Linux Mandrake (7.0 upgraded to 7.1
and with booting changed from LILO to GRUB for dual boot) also appears fine.
Having been a computer tech and working with shim programs like EZdrive,
I suspect that it is your problem source. I'm surprised installing GRUB
didn't totally block your access to the drive, frankly. I may not be right
here, but lacking further information I think this might be a good first
guess.
In case you haven't read my recent post regarding shim programs, I
include it below your message. What is not clear to me is if you actually
boot with the shim. If so, why do you need to use it? I want to be sure
that there is no confusion with other utilities that Western Digital supplies
with a new drive (as I recall they are all listed together on a unified
menu). Just because you are using a utility from the menu doesn't mean that
EZdrive is needed or installed. AND, just because you used it for something
doesn't necessarily mean that it is installed for booting, as I describe
below. I have used their drive image program to move Windont98 to the new
drive and used another program to resize that partition in preparation for
LinuxMandrake to be installed in the lions portion of the drive [i.e. I did
not move Linux this way, so I don't know if that would work, before others of
newbie ask]. This worked exactly as advertised, and has caused no problems.
A few months ago there was dialogue about not letting Windont tools do
the partitioning for Linux. Did you leave empty (unallocated space) for the
Linux install to partition? -Gary-
In a message dated 9/13/2000 5:22:57 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< Hi All
For the second time I lost my partition table/info and could not boot
into either win98 or linux.
Each occasion followed a scandisk+defragment on win98 sys - on rebooting
the grub prompt came up. I could do nothing with the grub prompt - had
no access to man or info.
I loaded "rescue" from 7.1lmk cd but again could do nothing - the /boot,
/home, /usr partitions couldn't be seen. Only the / partition seemed
available.
Win98 wouldn't load. The win boot disk worked - but win98 could not find
VFAT. Booting from win98 cd didn't work - the registry was not
available.
To get into windows I had to re-install win98 using setup.exe
HD is 4.1 Fujitsu split 1.7/2.4 win/linux with lunux hda6, 7, 8, 9
partitions + swop
What have I done wrong?? Why would scandisk/defragment seemingly destroy
boot map.
How do I copy to floppy the boot sector of the HD and boot from the
floppy as if it was the HD if I loose partition table again, or doesn't
life work that way.
I'm not sure if this is relevant but when moving from win95 to win98 the
HD was cleaned/reformated using Western Digital EZ-Drive programme for
reformating FAT32 file sys - did I foul up here.
Thanks
Alan Smith
South Africa
>>
** I left the title so that interested persons can lookup the original
discussion **
Subj: Re: [newbie] More C++ problems
Date: 9/14/2000
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mark,
How is the hard drive utilization set up in your motherboard's CMOS now?
LBA has been in general use for several years, and your motherboard is
definitely young enough to have LBA support. If your CMOS shows your hard
drive's CHS and mode both "auto", are you using a hard drive from an earlier
machine? Auto will support the hard drive in the manner it is setup. If the
drive came from a non-LBA capable machine, the new machine will use it
non-LBA. At the end of this message I'm putting a longish rant about shim
programs and LBA. If you are using a shim program you need to read it,
otherwise read it for background. If you have a drive over about 8.4GB and
are using the full capacity without a shim program you are using LBA mode, so
your error message is from another cause. If your CMOS has a hard drive
detection/configuration routine, you can use that to confirm thst your
motherboard is using LBA mode. The instructions in the fourth paragraph of
the shim material which begin, "To see what the BIOS thinks about the new
drive", at the end of this message will tell you if your motherboard is
capable of and is using LBA mode. If there are several choices, one may be
marked with ">", this is what auto would use. When doing anything in the
CMOS, you should KNOW how to get out without changing anything before you do
(or change) anything. If in doubt abort and begin again. Better safe than
sorry [I know, it's an old cliche', but true].
If you have a large drive that was setup as non-LBA that can be fixed,
even a shim can be fixed, but it may be more involved than you want to deal
with. The suggestion of using GRUB sounded good to me [as I am not
knowledgeable about the limitations or capabilities of LILO or GRUB], but if
you want to know more about LBA, ask.
-Gary-
Mark,
The shim rant is next.
With a new drive and a motherboard that does not support LBA the first
decision you need to make is whether you are willing to accept and use the
drive capacity that the motherboard sees. Most people want the full drive
capacity. Even if you accept the size limitations there are things you will
have to do later to regain the drives full capacity. A new motherboard is a
good choice because it avoids all of this.
The new drive will probably come with a "shim" (my quotes) program to use
with motherboards that don't support LBA. They are known by different names,
EZdrive being the only one that I can think of at the moment, but they are
"not a good idea" and can be a problem depending (read: will usually cause
problems eventually!). Good backups are MANDATORY!
The shim is a little program that reads in from the drive's boot sector
and handles all LBA translation itself (thus allowing you full access to the
drive); it basically sits between the motherboard and the drive. When they
work they work well (which is most of the time), but when they go wrong you
lose all access to your drive and you lose everything on it (which is typical
when the shim program itself goes wrong or with other hardware problems). IF
you decide to use such a shim program, DO NOT load either LILO or GRUB into
the drive's master boot record as this is where the shim lives and you will
lose all access to the drive (INCLUDING BOOTING FROM EITHER A DOS or LINUX
FLOPPY). Normally to boot from any floppy the the shim must install itself
in memory, the boot process must be stopped and the boot must continue from
the floppy. BE SURE THAT YOU ARE CLEAR ON EXACTLY WHAT THIS PROCEDURE IS
before you complete the installation of the shim, as these vary widely. I
also highly recommend that you make a shim rescue disk if the shim install
offeres you that chance.
[note that CMOS configurations vary widely, and that this discussion is
meant to point you in the right direction only. Go there carefully!] Some
CMOS BIOSes allow autoconfiguration of the CHS configuration and separate
adjustment of the drive's operating mode (i.e. LBA). With another drive
already in place, BE SURE that you write the existing drive's specs down (if
shown) for disaster recovery use, and be sure that you know which you are
changing. To see what the BIOS thinks about the new drive, there may be an
option in CMOS to detect the hard drive. If you use it, do not make a
selection (it often gives several choices). Back out of all pages and exit
CMOS without saving. If you make a selection or cannot (or do not) exit
without saving, you will have to go back into the (typically first page) CMOS
and zero [change back to "auto"] the CHS and mode settings for the new drive,
which will have automatically transfered and installed.
You may recall that there was alot of ...(furor, upset, bad press,
warnings, ...)... about hard drive compression software about five years ago.
A shim is in the same high risk category. -Gary-
