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.
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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' )
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.
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 all of the above conditions result in true,then
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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.
- 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.
-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. But will this help me to reinitialize a partition tables & solve my problem ?
Waiting for your helpful reply, Thanks & Regards, SAMEER :) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My Messenger IDs : MSN : s2sameer Yahoo! : s9sameer RediffBol : s2sameer Indiatimes : s2sameer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~