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Old 07-31-2004, 03:00 PM   #1
jason2
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jul 2004
Location: East Windsor, NJ
Distribution: Suse 9.0
Posts: 20

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making a non bootable patrion bootable


I have Suse 9.0 set up on a second disk in a non bootable partion.
is there a way to make this partion bootable with out reinstalling linux and all the programs current installed.
 
Old 07-31-2004, 03:22 PM   #2
fancypiper
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Registered: Feb 2003
Location: Sparta, NC USA
Distribution: Ubuntu 10.04
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fdisk will do it.
Code:
Sat Jul 31 04:23 PM fancy@uilleann ~ $ su -
Password:
Sat Jul 31 04:23 PM root@uilleann ~ # fdisk /dev/hdb
                                                                                                                             
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 9729.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
                                                                                                                             
Command (m for help): m
Command action
   a   toggle a bootable flag
   b   edit bsd disklabel
   c   toggle the dos compatibility flag
   d   delete a partition
   l   list known partition types
   m   print this menu
   n   add a new partition
   o   create a new empty DOS partition table
   p   print the partition table
   q   quit without saving changes
   s   create a new empty Sun disklabel
   t   change a partition's system id
   u   change display/entry units
   v   verify the partition table
   w   write table to disk and exit
   x   extra functionality (experts only)
                                                                                                                             
Command (m for help): a
Partition number (1-4): 1
                                                                                                                             
Command (m for help): w

Last edited by fancypiper; 07-31-2004 at 03:27 PM.
 
Old 07-31-2004, 04:30 PM   #3
michaelk
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Without knowing more details the answer is probably yes.

What OS is on the first disk and what is its present boot loader. linux boot loaders really do not care about the boot flag.
 
Old 07-31-2004, 06:51 PM   #4
jason2
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Registered: Jul 2004
Location: East Windsor, NJ
Distribution: Suse 9.0
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first disk is XP with XP's natave boot system.
second disk is Linux.
I don't want to tuch the first fisk if possible.
 
Old 07-31-2004, 07:01 PM   #5
fancypiper
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Registered: Feb 2003
Location: Sparta, NC USA
Distribution: Ubuntu 10.04
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In Linux, here is how drives are known
IDE 1 master = /dev/hda
IDE 1 slave =/dev/hdb
IDE 2 master = /dev/hdc
IDE 2 slave =/dev/hdd

Try the command

fdisk -l

as root. Here is what I get on my system:
Code:
Sat Jul 31 07:59 PM fancy@uilleann ~ $ su -
Password:
Sat Jul 31 08:00 PM root@uilleann ~ # fdisk -l
 
Disk /dev/hdc: 40.0 GB, 40037760000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4867 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
 
   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdc1   *         1      4867  39094146    c  Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
 
Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
 
   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *         1      1215   9755991    c  Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda2          1215      2429   9751455    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3          2429      2446    140017+  83  Linux
/dev/hda4          2447      4865  19430617+   5  Extended
/dev/hda5          2447      2516    562243+  83  Linux
/dev/hda6          2517      3368   6843658+  83  Linux
/dev/hda7          3369      3795   3429846   83  Linux
/dev/hda8          3796      4222   3429846   83  Linux
/dev/hda9          4223      4865   5164866   83  Linux
 
Disk /dev/hdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
 
   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1   *         1      9729  78148161   83  Linux
Sat Jul 31 08:00 PM root@uilleann ~ # mount
/dev/hda7 on / type ext3 (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
usbdevfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbdevfs (rw)
/dev/hda3 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda9 on /home type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hdc1 on /mnt/fat32 type vfat (rw)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/hdb1 on /pub type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda8 on /var type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda1 on /mnt/win98 type vfat (rw)
/dev/hda2 on /mnt/win2k type ntfs (rw)
 
Old 08-01-2004, 10:07 AM   #6
jason2
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Registered: Jul 2004
Location: East Windsor, NJ
Distribution: Suse 9.0
Posts: 20

Original Poster
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The system I am working with will allow me to set witch hard drive to boot from. With this I want to setup the second disk such that I can boot with out the dual boot system if need.

1) make the the partition on the second drive bootable
2) put MBR on the the partition

how do I load this Master boot Record
 
Old 08-01-2004, 10:25 AM   #7
jason2
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jul 2004
Location: East Windsor, NJ
Distribution: Suse 9.0
Posts: 20

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
The system I am working with will allow me to set witch hard drive to boot from. With this I want to setup the second disk such that I can boot with out the dual boot system if need.

1) make the the partition on the second drive bootable
2) put MBR on the the partition

how do I load this Master boot Record
 
  


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