RH7.2 dual boot issues

GATTACA · 02-23-2002, 02:24 PM

Hello, I'm new to the world of linux so if my question is rather dump please forgive me.

I've got a dual boot DELL 4000 laptop with Win2K and Red Hat linux 7.2. After installing RedHat 7.2 and getting all of the updates for it, the Linux side is fine (not surprising). But Win2k now takes FOREVER to boot! Each time I boot into Win2k, it tells me that it wants to check one of my partitions (the ones with linux on them). I have to cancel the check each time.

Plus, overall system speed is also extremely slow (30 seconds to open an MS Word window). I've disabled autochk.exe in w2k but that doesn't help. It's as if w2k is scanning all of the partitions, even though it shouldn't be looking at the Linux partitions at all. Has anyone seen this problem before? Can anyone suggests a way to fix it?

I would appreciate any and all hlep.

Thanks

:smash:

Mara · 02-24-2002, 05:45 AM

Hi,
Which bootloader do you use? This one coming with Linux or Windows 2000 one?
Windows has general problems beeing with other os on the same hd, so it's a good idea to use Windows boot loader in your situation.

Mara

GATTACA · 02-24-2002, 07:52 AM

I'm using Windows 2000's bootloader.

Mara · 02-24-2002, 08:33 AM

Hi,
I think it will be good to run defrag and scandisk under Windows.
Have you resized your Windows partition?

Mara

Griffon26 · 03-01-2002, 05:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by GATTACA
But Win2k now takes FOREVER to boot! Each time I boot into Win2k, it tells me that it wants to check one of my partitions (the ones with linux on them). I have to cancel the check each time.

I had exactly the same problem. I have Win2K installed on the first HD with LILO as bootloader and Linux on the 2nd HD.
What fixed the checking/slow booting problem for me is disabling the second harddisk in Win2K. (Open the explorer -> properties of C: -> go to hardware tab -> properties of 2nd hard drive -> set device usage to: "do not use this device (disable)" )

But this was not the only problem I had. After having installed 2K, it seemed to have screwed up my linux partition. If I boot into linux, this is what I get:

Quote:

/dev/hdb1: Note: if there is several inode or block bitmap blocks
which require relocation, or one part of the inode table
which must be moved, you may wish to try running e2fsck
with the '-b 32769' option first. The problem may lie only
with the primary block group descriptor, and the backup
block group descriptor may be OK.

/dev/hdb1: Inode bitmap for group 384 is not in group. (block 2147483647)

running e2fsck manually with -b 32769 gives:

Quote:

e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/hdb1
(null):
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

fdisk -l (in linux) outputs:

Quote:

Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 2491 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 644 5172898+ c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda2 645 2491 14836027+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 645 1090 3582463+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 1091 1121 248976 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda7 1122 2491 11004493+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/hdb: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 9964 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 9964 80035798+ 83 Linux

How do i fix this? Is mke2fs -S really the only option? And what chance do I have this will save my data? The odd thing is that I can still access /dev/hdb1 normally from Win2K using explore2fs.

P.S.: Not that it really matters, but I'm using Mandrake 7.2andahalf (new kernel and all)

Griffon26 · 03-01-2002, 06:10 AM

Oh, btw, I forgot. If you disable the drive in 2K, you can no longer use something like explore2fs to read your linux partition from 2K.

It might not be a problem for you, but it sorta is for me =/

Griffon26 · 03-03-2002, 04:41 AM

Ok, I found out why e2fsck -b wouldn't work. It turns out my superblocks are located on 32678, etc and not on 32769.

To find out where your backup superblocks are, you can run mke2fs -n on the partition. This will not actually change anything, but it will simulate normal operation and write to the screen where it would write backup superblocks.

After that you should use e2fsck -p -b <number of backup superblock> and wait a while.

That fixed it for me. Although I'm still not sure how I can safely access (even read-only) the ext2 partition from 2K.

Can this problem have something to do with the odd location of my superblocks? I suppose that if superblocks are normally @ 8K + 1, then the first would be at 1 and 0 would be unused. In my case this means that the first superblock is at 0. Does 2K do anything with this one that wouldn't have any effect if my first superblock was at 1?