Mystery drive letter on multiboot system

jscottdl · 05-15-2007, 06:58 PM

My problem is similar to the one here, but I couldn't find an answer I could use.

For most of the time I was trying to configure my system, WindowsME saw C: (13GB) and D: (58GB). Now that the system's working, it sees C: (13GB) D: ("Would you like to format it now?" - No) and E: (58GB). How do I get it back to just C: and D: ? I don't want to take the risk of formatting and having Windows wreck my Linux partitions. Is there anything I can do within Ubuntu or Mandriva? This is the result of 'fdisk -l':

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 32301 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id
 System
/dev/sda1   *           1          16      120928+  83 Linux
/dev/sda2             660       32294   239160600    f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3              17         659     4861080   83 Linux
/dev/sda5             660        8409    58589968+   b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda6            8410        8499      680368+  82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7            8500        8887     2933248+  83 Linux
/dev/sda8            8888       10179     9767488+  83 Linux
/dev/sda9           10180       15346    39062488+  83 Linux
/dev/sda10          15347       15395      370408+  83 Linux
/dev/sda11          15396       16070     5102968+  83 Linux
/dev/sda12          16071       16163      703048+  82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda13          16164       17543    10432768+  83 Linux
/dev/sda14          17544       18216     5087848+  83 Linux
/dev/sda15          18217       31760   102392608+  83 Linux
/dev/sda16          31761       32294     4037008+  83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 15.0 GB, 15020457984 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1940 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id
 System
/dev/sdb1   *           1        1940    14666368+   c
 W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

pixellany · 05-15-2007, 08:46 PM

Good Grief!!! You've got a lot of stuff there.
2 FAT32 partitions--I assume that Windows ME is on one of them. What is the other one?
Another assumption: All those Linux partitions are for various distros.

Is everything working in both Windows and the various Linuces? If so, then I would not worry about Windows trying to format one of the partitions.

And why 2 Linux swap partitions?

jscottdl · 05-15-2007, 09:27 PM

sda5 (or hda5) is the only one that's supposed to be a Windows partition. sda2 looks like it refers to the entire drive (minus the first two partitions). It's not too important, but I don't want to accidently format D: someday.

I have Ubuntu and Mandriva - that's why there's two Linux swap partitions. Wasn't sure how many partitions I needed, but those are the ones I settled on

jscottdl · 05-16-2007, 03:03 AM

I used a program called TweakUI to hide drive D from Windows Explorer. It's not what I wanted, but I guess that's all I get.

masonm · 05-16-2007, 07:00 AM

Your two Linux distros can share a swap, no need to have one for each.

rkelsen · 05-16-2007, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jscottdl

I used a program called TweakUI to hide drive D from Windows Explorer. It's not what I wanted, but I guess that's all I get.

You certainly have a few partitions there!

What tools did you use to partition your disks?

Personally, I only ever use "fdisk" from the "util-linux" package to create/modify the partitions on a disk. Even when I have to create Windows partitions.

michaelk · 05-16-2007, 08:02 AM

sda2 is an extended partition which in a nutshell is a container for logical partitions i.e. any sdax where x >=5. An extended partition allows one to create more then four partitions on a drive. Windows should not assign an extended partition a drive letter and not sure why or if the unknown D: is really referring to the extended partition. The unknown d: might be sda1. You could try removing the active flag from sda1 and see what happens. linux does not use this flag anyway.

Windows 98 always assigns c: to the active partition on the boot drive followed by the first active partition recognized on the next physical hard drive. Then non active and logical drives are assigned. All non DOS partitions should be ignored. I've seen posts where non DOS drives were being assigned a drive letter but I do not remember why.

jscottdl · 05-17-2007, 12:46 AM

Could someone tell me how to change the active flag or direct me to somewhere that can? I can't find any examples.

I formatted and installed Fedora, then went back to Ubuntu (Fedora looks great but it's too slow). I've got Ubuntu and Mandriva on my drive again with just one swap partition between the two of them. Now's the time to do installations, when I don't have much data to back up.

I have a MaxBlast floppy disk that lets me do Windows partitions, then I delete some of them with the Linux custom installers - and use the custom installers to create probably more partitions than I need. But there aren't as many now:

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 32301 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id
 System
/dev/sda1   *           1          16      120928+  83 Linux
/dev/sda2              17       32253   243711657    f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5            1293        9042    58589968+   b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda6              17        1292     9646497   83 Linux
/dev/sda7            9043        9132      680368+  82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8            9133        9649     3908488+  83 Linux
/dev/sda9            9650       14816    39062488+  83 Linux
/dev/sda10          14817       14866      377968+  83 Linux
/dev/sda11          14867       15761     6766168+  83 Linux
/dev/sda12          15762       32253   124679488+  83 Linux