Re: Weird Partition reading error in LArge HDD

["Sandip Bhattacharya" <sandipb@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks. I managed to get it working ... one problem in the method you
suggested was that windoze(or rather MSDOS fdisk, i am surprised there is no
win32 partitioning software in windows yet!) doesn't allow you to add a
second primary partition.

Anyway, i tried the method you suggested ... i formatted it use mkfs.msdos
and it worked ... the real problem as it appeared to me was what was
mentioned in the man page of fdisk. It appears that dos tried to read
partition information from the boot sector of the primary partition itself
before reading it from the main partition table...and believes it to be
authentic ... even if the main partition table has changed ... so the man
page suggested that you zero out the first sector of the new partition
before formatting it (this is something the dos format does behind your
back, and what windoze silently expects) ... worked for me ... but i am
still viewing the partition with a lot a suspicion.

Thanks again
- Sandip

----- Original Message -----
From: Lokesh Setia <lsetia78@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <linux-delhi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, November 12, 2000 2:13 PM
Subject: Re: [linux-delhi] Weird Partition reading error in LArge HDD


>
> Hi,
>
> Are you sure that /dev/hda3 is formatted (with FAT32?).
> First format it (in windows if you wish) and then try again.
>
> Also, verify whether you're referring to the right partition
> by running linux fdisk again and printing the partition table.
> If you're sure it's /dev/hda3, you can also format it via:
>
> # /sbin/mkfs.msdos -v -F 32 /dev/hda3
>
> and try mounting it again.
>
> The reason why people might have suggested you to have only one
> primary partition is because of weird naming scheme and other problems
> with windoze.  I just added a second hard disk a month ago, and guess
> what?  My old D: became E:, E: became F: and so on.  Had to manually
> move shift installed programs (they don't work otherwise).
>
> Linux deals with partitions in a very clean manner, and does not
> suffer from these complications.
>
> Regards,
> Lokesh Setia.
>
> >>>>> "Sandip" == Sandip Bhattacharya <sandipb@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
>     Sandip> Hi!  I just got a new 20GB Hard disk ....and it has been
>     Sandip> giving me a hard time ever since ..
>
>     Sandip> First I landed up with that dreaded 1024 cylinder
>     Sandip> problem. After going through all the discussions on this
>     Sandip> list, i tried the following partition scheme
>
>     Sandip>     hda1 (5GB) Windoze 98 - Primary hda2(5GB) Windoze
>     Sandip> extended with all linux logical partitions ..../boot being
>     Sandip> the first one ...thus helping lilo out.  hda5 - /boot hda6
>     Sandip> - swap hda7 - /home hda8 - / hda9 - /usr hda3(5GB) Windows
>     Sandip> FAT32 hda4(5GB) ...linux now ...hopefully freeBSD by this
>     Sandip> month end :)
>
>     Sandip> Now my problem is that Windows manages to read hda3 - the
>     Sandip> second primary ,...but surprisingly Linux doesn't. I know
>     Sandip> everybody said that don't make more than one primary
>     Sandip> ...but I don't see the problem here ...
>
>     Sandip> Linux manages to mount hda1 but while mounting hda3 it
>     Sandip> gives that clueless message("couldn't mount .. bad fs or
>     Sandip> too many mounted fs ..couldn't find valid msdos signature
>     Sandip> ...etc.etc")
>
>     Sandip> Help ...anybody???
>
>     Sandip> - Sandip
>
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