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Dynamic Disk
In my 40 GB harddisk ,I had installed Red Hat 7.3,Mandrake 8.0 and Windows Xp.I converted the disk to dynamic disk.But before that i installed lilo.I thought that Mandrake 's Kernel supports dynamic disk.And also lilo can boot into any partition(now volumes) in the dynamic disk.Unfortunately I was wrong.Since I had not compiled my linux kernel to support dynamic disk, I could not boot into the os.Is there any way to boot into the os -if not is there anything i can do so that without using any backups i can install a new linux os -without the loss of data.
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From MS site:
<QUOTE> Only computers running Windows 2000 can access dynamic volumes. </QUOTE> and <QUOTE> Since dynamic disks do not use the traditional disk organization scheme of partitions and logical volumes, they cannot be directly accessed by MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, or any versions of Windows NT. </QUOTE> (from http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tre...t1/sopch01.asp) I'm not sure if you can even access your Linux partitions any way now. Please try your Linux installation cds (in "rescue" mode) and look if you can get to your data. Edit: BTW Can anyone write (in plain English) what a dynamic disk really is? |
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There are five types of dynamic volumes: simple, spanned, striped, mirrored, and RAID-5. Mirrored and RAID-5 volumes are fault tolerant and are available only on computers running Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, or Windows XP. However, one can use a computer running Windows XP Professional to create mirrored and RAID-5 volumes on these operating systems. 2.Dynamic disk are thus much better than traditional partitioned disks.In dynamic disks there are no primary,extended or logical partition but they are replaced by volumes .The whole harddisk acts as a single partitions containing volumes.Volumes of dynamic disk can be understood by few os.There is an ongoing work to support LDM as it is known in linux.Try the sourceforge page for further documentation.Mandrake linux kernel supposedly supports LDM but the installer doesnot .To enable LDM support in linux you have to enable it by recompiling the linux kernel to enable ldm support. Lilo can see through the dynamic volumes( whereas grub is lost searching for a partition -as it thinks the harddisk contains a single partition). So the biggest headache i had was that i thought that i could boot into mandrake but i could not. I can rescue the data in the dynamic disk through following three ways(provided that they are ext2/3) 1.Through the rescue mode in installer(doesnot work in mandrake) 2.nifty utility called ext2explorer 3.the windows ext2 driver(also available in sourceforge- documentation is also available) I did not know that these pages are read by those who had so little technical knowledge in linux. I am suprised. Well i tried to ask help to a LDM programmer but he was too busy. For me the problem centres in the fact that either i should be able to boot into linux or i should be able to install a fresh copy of linux. coz my work on H.323 application for my university project might if not lost (data can be recoverd) but stopped for a while till i can boot or install linux |
Well, if I understand everything correctly, the thing you need to do is to compile a new kernel somewhere, access Linux partitions and copy it as one of the old ones (so there's no need to change LILO configuration) and it should work if LILO is OK. If it's not, you need to put the kernel on a floppy and boot.
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RCH:
If you really want to be technical its called LVM or logical volume management for linux not LDM. At least I think it is :) But hey I'm not a technical person. |
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Check this out http://<br /> <a href="http://sourc...ldm/</a><br /> now for mara thanks for your reply i had not though of compiling my kernel and puting into my floppy so i think this would be the best approach i will try it out and will keep you all informed and sorry for the technical users bit |
well continueing in the dynamic disk question i tried to use the
rescue mode from my red hat 7.3 cd unfortunately i forget the thing i was talking about above red hat installer does not understand dynamic disk so i got nowhere now i thing the best approach as pointed by mara would be using a floppy unfortunately for 2 days at least i can't use that approach since all the guys i know with linux in their pc are on holidays so i will most likely get a new kernel by tuesday and then hopefully salvage my work and install a new kernel in the os enabling LDM i will keep u all posted |
well continueing with the dynamic disk problem
i needed no other computer to use my linux os the steps that i did was 1.install a nice program called vmware-it allows one to create virtual machines thus also boot a os inside another os 2.install the minimum mandrake 8.0 inside a virtual machine (takes around 4 mb space) 3.add glibc,gcc,make and kernel headers and source to installation manually later 4.compile the kernel enabling ldm support 5.copy the kernel image to the floppy disk 6.load the kernel with loadlin and root=<my mandrake root partition>(/dev/hda6) 7.replace the kernel of mandrake with the compiled one and make necessary changes (in lilo) 8.reboot 9.Thank god everything is ok |
That's good. :)
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did i say everything is ok
now i have another problem i removed lilo from mbr i can go into into any of my linux os but while again installing lilo(lilo is removed) LILO cannot be installed the error message is: boot signature not found i read the lilo documentation and got no idea any ways |
For someone who has so much technical knowledge you sure end up asking for lots of advice. A little bit of grace and social savvy would do you wonders, not to mention the use of the search and/or spell check buttons.
A search for raid should produce some results, I think that you're in a situation similar to one that I was recently in. --Steve |
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well of course my spellings are somewhat wrong just remembered that english is not my mothertoungue anyway thanks for reminding about the boot signature problem there is a site called experts-exchange.com on which the some information is available unfortunately whatever i searched for through the net i found no solution and then only i came in this forum also the same for the initial problem i asked a ldm programmer too he said that there was no chance for me to boot into my os so i thought that i could come here for some help i never said that i have "technical" knowledge i only hoped that some guys who come here have that was what i was hoping for i had to write those words afer the first response becoz of somebody asking me what is dynamic disk that is all hope you understand |
marsonist, when you post you probably know the answer, it's a good idea to suggest it... The only person that may be angry is me, but I'm not. Let's stop, OK?
rch, I don't fully understand what you say. Is it solved? |
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well for the problem i can boot into my os but unfortunately there is no bootloader installed well i was wondering if there is anyway i can install lilo or any other boot loader as i can't now i tried to install lilo on the volume containing the linux partition (so that i can boot into it with ntbootloader) but it also failed |
well the only thing i was asking for is if there is any boot loader available which supports dynamic disk
and if there is any way through which i can reinstall lilo and marsonist i must add that i went through your suggestion and searched /and tried everything i could but i just can't still install lilo any help that you can give! |
If LILO and GRUB don't support it, you may try to install one of them on a floppy and see if it works. I guess it will.
When you install a bootloader on the Linux volume, you should add an option to Windows bootloader (popular win 2k/xp dualboot problem, use exactly the same method, like this one: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...+dualboot+lilo) and test it. |
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Yes I can boot into my linux os through floppies And that is what i am doing it now I created boot floppies with syslinux to boot into my linux os The real problem is that i can not install LILO on the harddisk The error message is boot signature not found. So some information here::: On a fixed disk the Master Boot Record occupies the very first sector at cylinder 0, head 0, sector 1. It is 512 bytes in size. If this sector is found it is loaded into memory at address 0000:7C00 and tested for a valid signature. A valid signature would be the value 55AAh in the last two bytes. Lacking an MBR or a valid signature the boot process halts with an error message which might read: Bootable OS not found A Master Boot Record is made up of two parts - the partition table which describes the layout of the fixed disk and the partition loader code which includes instructions for continuing the boot process. Now in dynamic disk there is actually no partition The volume information is stored in the last 1 mb of the harddisk Now I think that since LILO cannot see the boot signature it doesnot get installed And I don't know any bootloader which supports dynamic disk (MBR contains the partition table) I was asking if you know any bootloader which supports dynamic disk Now there is another solution as I said installing LILO/grub in the linux root volume(not partition) After they get installed i can boot into the os through nt boot loader I tried that too but i could not install LILO or grub the message is partition type(0x00) is not supported by LILO That is all Finally thanks Mara for your answers And I hope that I am not acting "technical" Hoping for some answers |
I guess the simpliest work around is to make 5-10MB /boot as a normal partition. Then LILO should install.
BTW Which LILO version do you have? From the Changelog it seems LVM is supported since 22.2 |
From what you have explained of LDM it seems, more or less, like a software raid. My experience has been that striped disks will not provide a suitable master boot record for LILO or Grub. If It's possible to create a partition which is not included in the stripe or mirror that would be optimal. (I don't know that it's possible to do that, as typically a whole device gets raided, not just certain partitions) What I suggest is to try and use an old 1 GB drive (any size will work really) and install your bootloader to that.
As a sidenote, what is your native language? --Steve |
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and it would not install there too i tried that long ago now even you are also confusing LDM with LVM even the red hat installer ie anaconda(from Red hat 8.0) supports LVM and not LDM |
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I tried here on the market but could not get a hard disk of 1 gb I know that if i get one my problem would get solved finally my native language is nepali thanks for your answers any work arounds? |
well going on this is what i plan to do:
copy the partition information of all the volumes (sectors,size and type with flags) on a paper then i will delete the windows dynamic disk(0x42h) partition then with fdisk i will make the partition table which is on the paper i know that windows xp checks the partition type and if it sees 0x42 it uses the 1mb volume database to make the same volume table(thinking that the something wrong has happened) now my approach would be to change the types of each partition that i created so that there would be no 0x42 partition and through this approach i would revert back to basic disk and lose no data too do you think that this approach will work? |
If you reached this page being as frustrated as i was once trying to convert your dynamic disk to basic
Well my idea above works - i tried it and it works but you have to use fsck and chkdsk after you repartition (there is also likelyhood that some of your data may get lost) Once i was so frustrated that i thought that i will write a program which would convert a dynamic disk to basic I started reading the documentation(whereever available) Anyway i did not write it But if you want to I have some idea(email me) For those who do not want to use my idea (writing partition table on paper and editing partition) I found another way- a partition recovering utility called testdisk http://www.cgsecurity.org/index.html?testdisk.html Just run the program(sorce is also available) analyse->then write it down on mbr you will get your old mbr back anybody who has something to say to me email me |
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