save my partition table!!!!

[Master of Reality]

okay, i'm gonna try to re-install linux, but first i need to know if i can resize my win (fat32) partition without having to format and lose my data, with diskdrake?

bootloading: i have mylinux partition on hda3, my win partition on hda1. so, if i install LILO on hda1 can i use it to load either linux or win?

[ May 16, 2002: Message edited by: Master of Reality ]

[asdf]

FIPS is a good non-destructive partition-splitting program. It's very well documented, do a search on google.

As far as bootloading goes, install LILO in the MBR. That way you can choose between Linux and Windows when you boot.

[Master of Reality]

so, can diskdrake resize my win partition without making me lose my data?

i tried getting partition magic, but i accidentally got some special server records/drivers for a huge non-monopolistic company (he he). The trial version of parition magic is corrupted when you dl it from www.powerquest.com

[jtpenrod]

quote: so, can diskdrake resize my win partition without making me lose my data?

Absolutely! This is not a problem at all as I've done it. Here's how I would do it. First of all, run scandisk to make certain that there are no bad blocks on your HD. Do this from DOS as it takes a dog's age if you start it from Windows. This will save time since you can then skip this step when doing the Linux install. Next, I'd take a good look at the "Hidden Files" feature article. There is an awful lot of garbage that you can get rid of to free up more disk space for Linux. Next, run defrag from Windows, not the DOS command prompt. Do it from Windows to prevent the loss of all the long file names. You can use Windows Explorer to see how much space Win is taking up so you don't accidentally overwrite any data.

Start the Mandrake install in "expert" mode so that you are able to do the actual partition resizing once you select that option. You can set up the Linux parts in whatever file system you want to use: ext2, ext3, ReiserFS (I think?) - I'd select one of the journaling systens (ext3 or Reiser) it comes in handy if you lose power, and it seems to be somewhat faster than ext2. There really isn't any more to it than that.

It's also a good idea to tell the installer that you'd like to select your own boot loader. My preference is GRUB instead of LILO. GRUB will automatically detect the presence of Win, and add it to the boot menu.

One extra precaution that I would recommend is that once Mandrake is up and running, is go to the Mandrake Control Center -> hardware -> mount points, and take a few megabytes or so off the VFAT part, leaving free space between the VFAT and Linux parts. I've had problems with overlap errors that can ruin both parts if you ever run defrag again. You can either leave the free space, or if you have Partition Magic, use it to resize the VFAT part back into the free space to eliminate any partition overlaps.
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[ May 22, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]

[Master of Reality]

one more thing, whats the difference between ext2 and ext3 filesystems?

[ March 31, 2002: Message edited by: Druaga ]

[asdf]

ext2 is the "standard". ext3 is a newer version, it's a journalling file system, meaning that if your computer crashes you won't need to fsck it - it just recovers the journal. It is backwards compatible - you should go for ext3.

I use reiser, IMHO its better..

[Master of Reality]

well, according to windows, there is not enough memory to run defrag, I have 80MB RAM i went into msconfig turned off most things that run at startup (e.g. Zone Alarm). Turned off EVERYTHING,
so windows in itself takes up too much memory to run defrag, but under system properties>performance it says i have something like 98% resources free.

[Calum]

if i were you, i'd use a utility called PQMAGICT.EXE
i found it on my old partition magic 4.01 CD, and it runs in DOS.
it is non destructive and very easy and fast to use.
the problem for you is getting it.
when you run it (i run dos from a floppy, and pqmagict.exe from the cd) it doesn't ask for any passwords or security keys or anything. maybe this is because i already have partmagic installed on the hard drive, but i think not since, as i say i am running both the OS and the program from external drives.
Maybe you could do a search using WinMX or a similar file sharing program just for the DOS program 'PQMAGICT.EXE' but i think mostly you will just find bundled warez of 'cracked' copies of partition magic.
you might get some kind soul to email it to you but as i said, i'm not sure of the legalities implied therein...
sorry, not too conclusive, but it's all i've got, basically, if you can get PQMAGICT.EXE, and can run DOS, do it, it works really well.

[Master of Reality]

how do i completely format a parition in Linux?

[iancom]

[assuming IDE disks!]

mke2fs /dev/hd??  : for ext2
mke2fs -j /dev/hd?? : for ext3

if you use -j you'll need to mount it with "-t ext3" to use the journalling, but you can still mount it as ext2 at any time if you need to.

If -j isn't working, check it's compiled into your kernel. I think support for ext3 was compiled in as default from RedHat 7.2 on. Don't know about Mandrake, but I'm fairly sure it's in 8.2.

[Master of Reality]

(i'm too lazy to start a new thread for this)

I installed redhat 7.2 and when i start up it says "invalid partition table".
Now just before i installed, i used a win98 boot floppy and did "fdisk /mbr" to get that damn EZbios off my computer.
I tried re-installing with several different partitioning schemes.
right now i have:
hda1 /boot
hda2 /swap
hda3 vfat
hdb1 /
hdb2 is just free space (no actual partition)

[voidmain]

After you wipe out sleEZy BIOS you'll need to delete any partitions on the drive, then create your new ones.

[Master of Reality]

I did delete all my partitions and then partitioned them with diskdruid (in the redhat install), that didnt work, so i tried partiting with fdisk and that didnt work either.

I tried to load slackware (after i installed and got the same error message) from a boot disk and it says "kernel panic: VFS: error while trying to mount root fs".

I tried repartitioning the hard drive and installing slackware on only my first hard drive, but that didnt work.
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is it just me, or do i really have the worst computer problems around here?

[ May 13, 2002: Message edited by: Master of Reality ]

[Calum]

i wish i could just run you off a copy of partition magic 4, as i say, it has the best DOS running partition tool, you just use a DOS bootdisk and run it off the CD, thereby leaving nothing accessing the hard drive to interfere with the process. That's the problem with these non-GPL programs though, always on the take.

Anyway, i saw partitionmagic 5, the full version, totally registered, no nagscreen, no crippleware, free on a cover CD as abandonware the other day! that throws a new light on my worrying about copying partition magic 4 for people... Still, sorry it doesn't help you more, since i am unlikely to bump into you to give you a copy of this CD.

[voidmain]

If Linux is having problems with your partition table then you probably have something set up wrong.  Is it set properly in the BIOS?  Or you didn't run the EZ-BIOS utility to wipe out the boot sector and partition table.

[ May 13, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]