GHackmann 0 Posted February 19, 2001 Today I tried installing the test version of Mandrake Linux. Stupid me, I decided to try using the partitioning tool without backing up the partition table first, and it kind of screwed up my partition table. What's happening now is that I can access only my D: drive in Windows 2000 and 98 SE. The Windows 98 DOS mode says it's not there, and FDISK claims it doesn't exist either. SystemSuite 2000 can't read the disk in Windows 2000 and locks up in Windows 98. So I pulled out my handy copy of Partition Manager, and I killed the Linux partitions (didn't really need them at this point anyway, since the install didn't work), converting them to free space. No dice; the same problems. I heard about several tools, such as TESTDISK (http://www.esiea.fr/public_html/Christophe.GRENIER/) and RESQDISK, but they couldn't help me. RESQDISK rebuilt the partition table the *exact* same way it was before I ran it (thanks a lot, like I can't do that). TESTDISK threw out an error message on analyzing the disk, which looks useful, but I can't figure out the problem is, and it wasn't too keen on helping me fix it. (The log is below.) The partitions don't look like they're overlapping, so it can't be that. Anyway, it's been so long since I've dealt with partition tables that I've forgotten the most of little "rules" Microsoft imposes on where partitions can live, and I can't for the life of me see what's wrong. So could somebody who has some expertise with this sort of thing help me with this? (Fortunately, since Windows can still access the D: drive, I still have access to the data, so if I really need to I can always copy the data onto a spare drive when I come home for spring break and reformat the drive. I'd just rather not do this, heh.) TestDisk log: TestDisk command line : /log Mon Feb 19 16:12:27 2001 TestDisk 3.0, Data Recovery Utility by Christophe GRENIER, January 23 2001 grenier@nef.esiea.fr http://www.esiea.fr/public_html/Christophe.GRENIER/ Drive 80 - CHS 16383 16 63 - 8063 MB Analyse Drive 80 - CHS 16383 16 63 - 8063 MB get_MBR_data return 1; 1 * FAT32 LBA 0 1 1 19874 0 63 20032992 20032992 Bad ending cylinder 2 E extended 19874 1 1 55717 7 63 36130185 3613018 Bad starting cylinder Partition Manager log: Ranish Partition Manager Version 2.40.00 February 08, 2001 HD 1 (128) 29,311M [ 3,736 cyls x 255 heads x 63 sects = 60,030,431 sects ] File Starting Ending Partition # Type Row System Type Cyl Head Sect Cyl Head Sect Size [KB] 0 MBR Master Boot Record 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 Pri Unused 0 0 2 0 0 63 31 2 >Pri 1 Windows FAT-32 LBA 0 1 1 1,246 254 63 10,016,496 3 Pri 2 Extended 1,247 0 1 3,495 254 63 18,065,092 4 Ã Log Windows FAT-32 1,247 1 1 3,495 254 63 18,065,061 5 Pri Unused 3,496 0 1 3,736 183 62 1,933,595 Partition table details: Starting Ending Starting Number of Ending # Type R FS Cyl Head Sct Cyl Head Sct sector sectors sector 0 MBR FF 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 Pri 00 0 0 2 0 0 63 1 62 62 2 >Pri 1 0C 0 1 1 1,246 254 63 63 20,032,992 20,033,054 3 Pri 2 05 1,247 0 1 3,495 254 63 20,033,055 36,130,185 56,163,239 4 Ã Log 0B 1,247 1 1 3,495 254 63 20,033,118 36,130,122 56,163,239 5 Pri 00 3,496 0 1 3,736 183 62 56,163,240 3,867,191 60,030,430 Partition records exactly as they appear in MBR (EMBR): Starting Ending Starting Number of # HD FS Cyl Head Sect Cyl Head Sect sector sectors (0,0,1): 1 80 0C 0 1 1 1,023 254 63 63 20,032,992 2 00 05 1,023 254 63 1,023 254 63 20,033,055 36,130,185 3 00 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 00 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (1247,0,1): 1 00 0B 1,023 254 63 1,023 254 63 63 36,130,122 2 00 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 00 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 00 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Detailed information about each partition: --- Partition 2 --- Type: Windows FAT-32 LBA CHS=(0,1,1) 10,016,496 k 20,032,992 sectors Volume Label: NO NAME System id: MSWIN4.1 File system: FAT32 Cluster size: 8k (16s) FAT size: 4,886k Drive number: 128 Exp: 128 Starting sector: 63 Expected value: 63 Number of sectors: 20,032,992 Expected value: 20,032,992 --- Partition 4 --- Type: Windows FAT-32 CHS=(1247,1,1) 18,065,061 k 36,130,122 sectors Volume Label: NO NAME System id: MSWIN4.1 File system: FAT32 Cluster size: 16k (32s) FAT size: 4,879k Drive number: 128 Exp: 128 Starting sector: 20,033,118 Expected value: 20,033,118 Number of sectors: 36,130,122 Expected value: 36,130,122 [This message has been edited by GHackmann (edited 19 February 2001).] Share this post Link to post
HarU 0 Posted February 22, 2001 Well, what a predicament. Okay, when you install linux, it requires you to install LILO, which is linux's boot manager. After LILO is installed, the MBR (master boot record) is wiped clean. When this is done, the only way to get to your windows drives is A.) lilo detected the OS's and you can select which OS you want to boot into, or B.) you go into lilo.conf (on the linux partition) and you mount the windows drives with labels. This is the only way LILO will see the partitions most of the time. Now, even though you deleted linux, the damage was already done. As soon as you installed LILO the MBR was nuked. I am actually surprised you can boot into any of your current OS's. Anyway, unfortunately, i think that you will have to reinstall. That is the shittiest and toughest thing to do when dual booting linux. Windows and Linux don't play nice together, and you just learned this the hard way. Well, i hope this cleared up some cloudy areas there.....good luck. Share this post Link to post
GHackmann 0 Posted February 23, 2001 Unfortunately, that isn't what happened. I got out of the Linux installation before it started copying anything, and before it was supposed to cut any partitions up. It's definitely not the MBR, because GRUB (which Mandrake uses in place of LILO) never got installed, and FDISK /MBR under Win98 (which I tried to no avail) fixes that anyway. Actually, I had been taking different distros of Linux on and off of my PC for a while now without problems, and it's just recently that installing Mandrake gave me the problem. I think its partitioning tool did *something* even though I didn't tell it to, because that's the only thing that I can think of. I'm 99% sure that it moved the D: partition boundary around to somewhere illegal, judging by the errors it's giving me, but it's been a while since I've had to rebuild a partition table, and I don't see where the problem is. Like I said, I can still access all my data (even on the D: drive) as normal so long as I'm in Windows, so I think I'm just going to keep diligent backups until I can bring the hard drive home over spring break and do a proper backup/repartition/restore. Share this post Link to post
