Still can't dual boot-- is it a hardware thing?

[blackbelt_jones]

Whenever I try to install a dual boot (with either Red 7.2 or Mandrake 8.1) I get the following error message:

Files too corrupted for me to read!

or words to that effect, even if the windows files, which appear to be working just fine, were only installed a few minutes ago. I can only think that I need a new hard drive. Any other ideas?:confused:

[rh0win]

Well it should have seen the other partiton fine. But considering the error is telling you that your files might be corrupted a new hard drive won't hurt you could probably get a 40gb 7200rpm for like 100.00 now.

Now if the problem still continues after installing a new hard drive then you would have to look at the software of the operating system.

But let me ask you this is the problem only on the Windows partition? And also when exactly are you getting this error at startup?

[dkeav]

two words Partition Magic

[shakin]

Don't replace the hard drive first. I'd say that's very bad advice since it's going to cost you around $100 to do. I suggest you boot from the windows cd and wipe out all of your partitions. create a new partition of whatever size you want and load windows, making sure to do a format first.

then boot from the linux cd and repartition the remaining portion of your hard drive and install linux on it, taking care during the grub/lilo stage of install so that it recognizes your windows partition.

if this still won't let you dual boot you can try to do a low-level format of your hard drive and do everything over again. if it still wont' work then try replacing your hard drive.

[ChickenTrucker]

Like one of the posters said, try using DOS fdisk to wipe out your old partitions, do fdisk /mbr, reboot with no partitions defined, and try again; it might just be a cylinder overlap or similiar partition prob has mucked up the file systems or boot table. Make sure you are loading the boot manager on the root superblock, and not the mbr, when you reinstall.

Best result is using fdisk to set up partitions, but just format whatever for Windows, then format the linux with whatever file system you prefer, ext2, etc., then Windows will still see the partitions, as they correspond to it's fdisk, and not choke on the partition table. linux will boot from an extended partition.

I also recommend keeping your Win partitions at 2 gig or below; linux at whatever you want, to minimize sector(?) sizes on your Win parts. if you would like to be able to access your Win part from linux; I forget exactly what, but I think 2 gig will keep it in line with 4096 bytes, while a huge part will use up to 32k bytes minimum.

Of course I'm assuming this with no knowledge of XP and assuming it still uses parts and uses the boot sector the same way win 98 does.:confused:

[dkeav]

the xp question depends yes and no with xp you can choose between two formats FAT32 and NTFS NTFS being the better choice NTFS is a journaling file system and no longer has the cluster, and mbr 1024 cylinder barrier of fat32

[ChickenTrucker]

dkeav:

Thanks for the info on xp; I knew it could use another file system, just not which one.