Why are some of my non-Linux partitions now messed up? (Mandrake 7.2)

[Robster]

OK, bear with me on this because it takes a bit of explaining...

The partitions on my three hard drives are configured and named like this:

Drive 1 (46gb):
Windows 98
Windows 2000
Files
Archives

Drive 2 (46gb):
Linux /
Linux swap
BigStuff
Spare

Drive 3 (25gb in a removable bay)
Dump

I often boot off a CD-R which contains Ghost, GDISK and other utilities. I use this for making backup images of the non-Linux partitions to the third 25gb drive in a removable bay.

The problem is this - since installing Mandrake a couple of days ago, the system is not allocating drive letters properly when I boot off my utilities CD (or a floppy for that matter). They're OK up to 'Archives' (letter F), but the Linux / and Linux Swap are not allocated letters in DOS (as you'd expect) and the drives after that get messed up.

This is how GDISK reports the partitions following the install of Mandrake:

Drive 1
Windows 98 C:
Windows 2000 D:
Files (my own stuff) E:
Archives (my own stuff) F:

Drive 2
Linux / (no letter)
Linux swap (no letter and reports as 'unformatted')
BigStuff G:
Spare H:

Drive 3 (removable)
Dump I:

But the CD used to boot is also assigned as I:. The end result is that the 'Spare' paritition can not be seen and the 'Dump' partition on the removable drive is a jumbled mess of random characters (even Ghost sees it like this).

Before Linux got installed everything worked fine, but this is going to cause me real problems.

It looks like what's happening is that the Linux partition(s) are confusing DOS so that some of the DOS partitions following them are not being seen properly. For example, Norton GDISK can see the 'Spare' partition but regular FDISK cannot.

Any suggestions?

btw I boot Linux off a floppy. Grub already managed to destroy the MBR on two occassions so I'm reluctant to try that again. Good job I had the Ghost backups.

Rob

[fancypiper]

Windows is pretty flaky if you have a fat 32 partition not on the first primary partition or extended partitions with linux partitions on them.

If you want a Windows partition to co-exist peacably on a different drive with other types of partitions, make sure the Windows partition is the first primary partition If your Linux partitions are primary ones and not extended, Windows shouldn't see any of the Linux stuff not be confused.

Windows seems to be confused by more than one fat32 partition (primary or extended) on a drive if there are other file systems on them as well.

[ 08 March 2001: Message edited by: fancypiper ]

[Robster]

Windows isn't the problem though. Windows can see the partitions. It's DOS that I'm having problems with. Ghost only runs in DOS so if I can't access all the FAT32 partitions it's going to cause real problems.

[fancypiper]

Maybe I should have said "Microsoft software" rather than Windows. :eek:

I still believe your partition setup is the problem.

[Robster]

Mmm... I hadn't thought about the Extended thing before.

Getting late here now, but I'll try not allocating the whole second drive as Ext.

Oh well, all in the learning process :)

[Robster]

Damn, still no result. This is what I've just tried:

Drive 1 - as before

Drive 2
Extended DOS partition 88% of the drive,
containing 32gb BIGSTUFF partition and 6gb SPARE partition.

Rest of space on the drive was allocated like this:
Linux / 4gb
Linux swap 300mb
Linux /home - the rest of the space

Mandrake installed and booted OK. However when booting into DOS, I can only see the 6gb SPARE partition on the second drive. The 32gb BIGSTUFF is nowhere to be seen.

Windows can see the partitions fine. What on earth is going on?

[ 08 March 2001: Message edited by: Robster ]

[fancypiper]

Originally posted by Robster:


Drive 2
Extended DOS partition 88% of the drive,
containing 32gb BIGSTUFF partition and 6gb SPARE partition.


Make it 2 primary partitions and it should work like you want it to do.

Isn't it neat how you can do so much with Linux and it works but Microsoft operating systems have to have their own way and then it gets confused.

Windows installation recommended installing in the E drive for me once. I let it do it and it had no idea where it's operating system was when it asked to be rebooted.

:rolleyes:

[Robster]

Well to be fair Fancy, everything was just fine until Linux got installed!

What bothers me is this - why can Windows (98 and 2000) see the partitions OK but not DOS?

Two (or more) Primary DOS partitions? I really shouldn't have to do that but I might try it if all else fails.

To be honest I'm tempted just to put a third damn internal drive in there for Linux alone.

[Robster]

RESULT!

I should have tried this earlier.

I left the disc configuration as listed above. Deleted the whole Extended DOS partition, reapplied it with GDISK and then reapplied the two Logical drives (BIGSTUFF and SPARE). Rebooted - worked perfectly. DOS now sees all partitions correctly. Linux also boots fine.

This confirms my suspicions that the Mandrake installer did something to the partition table of Drive 2. What something was, reapplying the DOS partitions did the trick with no adverse effects.

Anyone like to venture an opinion on what happened?

Rob