On Wed, 2002-07-17 at 05:56, Sameer Shinde wrote:
On Monday, July 15, 2002 8:05 PM "Rajesh Deo" rajeshdeo@earthlink.net suggested,
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BTW, How to reinitialize the partition table (in safer way)?
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Can U tell me any windows option to reinitialize the partition table? As I'm quite safe with windows.
Thats approach number 5 in my last mail. Softwares like Partition Magic might be able to fix a broken partition table. But I am not sure whether they do, as I never used them. May be some one else on the list has more info on this ??
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Sameer(ds) seems to have touched upon right issue (?). It can be a corrupt partition table or it might be something else altogether. If I
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(parted) cp /dev/hdb2 /dev/hda1
Finish your installs and leave happily.
So far I have not understand the above part of your mail. ( Plz don't mind, as I'm still trying to understand it & have to look at the 'parted' )
Read Partitioning-HOWTO first that will clear basic concepts. Read parted user manual for parted specific help. If you are stuck with something let me know, I will try to explain better. The central idea is to copy a partition as a large binary data file to another area on disk of the same size or larger. This way one can backup entire windows partition on another disk, clean the first disk of any partitions, then recreate new partitions on first disk which are exactly as they were in original partition table, and then copy back the whole old partition to its place on the first disk. This way one can save the trouble of reinstalling windows and other software as well as putting back your data properly.
The steps below I have understood, but still I have some quires, This is to get some more help from you.
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You installed windows with certain number of partitions lets say, 1 primary (c:) 1 extended | `--> 1 logical (d:)
I have a 20GB hdd, which I have partitioned as below 4GB * 5 partitions = 20 GB So far the partitions are as below 1 primary [C: ] (4GB) 1 extended ( 16 GB) | `--> 3 logical [ D, E, F] ( 4 GB each)
The 4GB left in extended is free & I'm using it for linux.
Perfect, I guess this means you had no other DOS/Windows partitions created with __Linux__ from a previous install. Then it is safe to do "fdisk /mbr" which should initialize your partition table back to what it was before you began with Linux install.
2 . If this was the way that DOS fdisk initially initialized your MBR+Partition table. You DID NOT add extra logical DOS drives using Linux and then used them under Windows to store data.
I didn't understand this, but no partitions are created using linux fdisk & are used. The partitions which I had created during the linux installation ( /, /boot, /swap) are now deleted using the linux fdisk & the space is free at present.
_If_ you had a previous linux install and had made DOS partitions using Linux fdisk, then windows fdisk won't know about them, since you did not used windows fdisk to create them in first place, right ?
Since you did not have such partitions with data in it, you are okay to fix your partition table using "fdisk /mbr" command.
If all of the above conditions result in true,then[snip]
do "fdisk /mbr", this will wipe any boot loader like lilo from Make sure Windows boots properly and you see all your windows partitions as well as data. Proceed with Linux install.
The MBR is also cleared, system is booting properly in win.
Was the MBR cleared with "fdisk /mbr" ?, if yes, then your partition table should be restored. Use linux fdisk to verify your partition table, if no errors are reported your partition table is probably fine now.
- Now the most dangerous one, we have no access to any CD-BURER /
additional HDD, we can not do instruction 5, then,
The condition is true. Can I proceed further in this condition.
What I meant at start of suggestion 6 was this,
1. No access to CD-BURNER / HDD 2. We have extra DOS partitions created from previous linux install with important data in it. We do not want to loose it by doing "fdisk /mbr" as the Windows fdisk has a copy of mbr which says you do not have these extra DOS partitions. (get this ?)
Since you do not have such extra DOS partitions, your windows backup MBR has a clean partition table structure from your last use of windows fdisk.
Since the above is the case, we do not need to do risky suggestion 6. DO NOT do any part of suggestion 6 if you already restored your partition table with "fdisk /mbr". Though you can still do step number -1. Simple go ahead with linux install. I think this clarifies all your questions below.
-1. Read all HOWTOs related to Partitioning, fdisk etc. 0. take a deep breath and pop in that RHL CD.
- Boot RHL cd, go in rescue mode, get a shell
- fdisk -l /dev/hda
- Note down _all_ that fdisk said it sees, particularly start/ end cylinders for each partition and the associated blocks.
- Make sure you understand what any and all those numbers mean
I can do this.
we don't care for linux partitions right now as we want to reinstall.I don't have any linux partitions at present, as I have deleted them & the space is free.
- Delete all of your partitions with linux fdisk. THE IMPORTANT THING TO NOTE HERE IS THAT EVEN IF YOU DELETE YOUR PARTITION, YOUR DATA IS STILL AS IT IS ON THE DISK.
- Write the blank partition table to disk using the 'w' command of fdisk. With out doing anything else Reboot and come back in rescue mode.
Should I go for this step & ahead ?
7. Now use linux fdisk again to recreate your previous windows partitions __exactly__ as they were in original fdisk listing that you wrote down. (If you didn't you are dead). Make sure you give the right partition/filesystem id to the partitions.e.g. 83 --> Linux, 82--> Linux Swap, c --> Win95 FAT32, f--> Win95 extended. For full listing see, fdisk's 'l' command. You might want to use GNU parted instead of fdisk, as fdisk has this thing about DOS partitions, see fdisk's man page. In this case you should have saved the entries for the initial partition table as parted sees them. 8. Write partition table to disk and reboot. 9. Get back in rescue mode. use fdisk -l to see partitions, now try and mount the partition. Peek in to see if you data is still there. It should be there safe and sound. 10. Reboot and proceed with Linux install ahead.
If I could manage to get another HDD for backup can I go other way round by DELETING ALL (Win. & Linux ) partitions with DOS fdisk & making a all new clean partitions. & then installing both Windows & Linux.
Sure you can do this, when I suggested copying your entire windows partition, that was simply to ease the trouble of reinstalling windows and all the goodies that you are probably using, including putting your data back to where it was. If this is less worrisome you can go by this way.
But will this help me to reinitialize a partition tables & solve my problem ?
fdisk /mbr will reinitialize your partition table to what it was before you started your linux install.
If you do backups and delete all partitions including windows, and reinstall back all stuff, your will get a clean new partition table.
Both ways you are okay. The first one will save you the trouble of reinstalling windows.
it would be great if you can mail me the install error messages, not that i can guarantee some conclusion out of it, but just to see what stage caused the error. Also make dead sure that your package install size is less than available disk space.
HTH
Rajesh