Partition Problems
 

Ok i partitioned my HD with Paragon Partition Manager and also Acronis Disk Director.
But when i boot Fedora it says i have an invalid partition table then something about i will lose all data, if i try custom layout it doesn't see the HD.

Paragon Partion Manager shows as the drive being invalid

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/60/desktop1xv2.jpg

And Acronis shows the drive as ok

http://img409.imageshack.us/my.php?i...esktop2tz5.jpg

I can access the NTFS part of the drive in windows with no problems.

I need to keep that part as it has files on.
Drive D hosts my XP.

So i tried unpluging my XP drive and Fedora did the same it says i have an invalid partition table then something about i will lose all data, if i try custom layout it doesn't see the HD.

I also don't unsterstand why the 1st 2 linux partions are primary partitions..

Thanx for any help......

If you let

(1) XP's Disk management
(2) Paragon Partion Manager
(3) Acronis Disk Director
(4) Fedora's own partitioning tools

To mess around the same partition table then that is the consequence.

You should stick to just one because they are incompatible with each other. A fix by one is a poison to the other.

When the situation gets more serious some of these partitioning tools will refuse to have anything to do with it and you will be in a hopesless situation.

It is a mess at the moment because

(1) It is a PC standard that the number of prinaries and extended partition is always 4. An extended partition must come at the expense of giving up one primary.

(2) All logical partitions must be in a continuous chain.

Only you would know what the partitions are for and you should use the original tool to delete the partitions the violate the PC standard.

Yeh i used Paragon at 1st and this resized the drive with no problems leaving me with the rest, i then wanted to create 6 linux partitions and 1 swap partition, paragon only let me create 2 primary partitions, and it wouldn't let me create anymore.

So i used Acronis partition manager to create the rest of them which are logical partitions.

What i still can't understand though is i can still see and view/use my NTFS part which is supposed to be invalid..?

Ok should there be 1 primary partition and the rest should be in the extended partition as logical drives.

So i Got:
Primary NTFS: WinXP
Primary NTFS: Drivers (i have this for new XP installs)
Primary Ext3: Want to install Fedora here
Extended:
Logical Ext3: Want to install ManDriva here
Logical Ext3: Want to install SuSe here
Logical Ext3: Free for further Linux Installs (Testing)
Logical Ext3: Free for further Linux Installs (Testing)
Logical Ext3: Free for further Linux Installs (Testing)
Logical Swap:

Mmm it's all confusing to me, lol i wouldn't mind i've been using PC's for 10 years and am a level 2 c++ programmer. But i never have done this before, i have had 3-4 os's on a pc before but all have been either Fat or ntfs.

The position of the partitions also matter to XP and it doesn't like to have unallocated space around it think it may be a virus attacking the partition table.

Your partition table in Post #4 is OK as long as the logical partitions are continuous.

Here is an example of how far one can get with a Pata (63 partitions)or a Sata (15 partitions). I would use Linux's tools for partitioning work as Linux can recognise over 100 partition types and therefore can handle them better.

It is a good idea to have the partitions created first before installing systems inside. For ease of booting, maintenance, resizing, migration and preservation of your work I recommend one partitition per system. In every LInux if you give a single partition to mount its root ("/") the installer will put everything as subdirectories under it. The same arrangement works for Solaris and all BSD systems too, although most of them need a primary partition for residence and subdivide the partition into sub-slices. One swap is good enough for 100+ Linux but Ubix systems has own swap inside the partition.

Ok thanx for all your help, i now have Fedora running.

Primary NTFS: WinXP
Primary NTFS: Drivers (i have this for new XP installs)
Primary Ext3: FEDORA NOW RUNNING HERE
Extended:
Logical Ext3: Want to install ManDriva here
Logical Ext3: Want to install SuSe here
Logical Ext3: Free for further Linux Installs (Testing)
Logical Ext3: Free for further Linux Installs (Testing)
Logical Ext3: Free for further Linux Installs (Testing)
Logical Swap:

The Grub menu from Fedora works and i can select WinXP or Fedora.

If i now install Mandriva on another partition will GRUB automatically pick that up...?

No.

What you can do is to edit Fedora's /boot/grub/menu.lst to put the following entries in
Thereafter in every Linux you install "instruct" the installer to place its boot loader inside the root partition. You will find an empty partition can boot it instantly once it is filled.

You should know by now Grub counts from zero.

Again thankyou for taking the time to explain things to me..... i really appreciate it alot.
I'm sure after a while of messing sround with things i will pick it all up..

What do i edit the menu.lst with as it won't open with a text editor.... Do i have to edit it from a console like the root..?

For a bomb proof go-anywhere command
If you need a GUI editor you can do so in Fedora by
Omit "sudo" if you log in as root.

Because access is restricted to the root user, it is often easiest to edit configuration files from a console.
open a console (terminal)
su to become root
nano /boot/grub/menu.lst

(nano is a common editor that runs in a terminal--you can substitute any editor--including GUI--eg gedit, kedit, etc.)

Ok here's what i got.

#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd1,2)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.18-1.2798.fc6)
root (hd1,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=LABEL=LINUX rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.img
title WinXP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
Title Mandriva to be installed in hda5
root (hd1,3)
chainloader +1
Title Suse to be installed in hda6
root (hd1,4)
chainloader +1
Title Empty @ hda7
root (hd1,5)
chainloader +1
Title Empty @ hda8
root (hd1,6)
chainloader +1
Title Empty @ hda9
root (hd1,7)
chainloader +1

I will try that and see what happens.

Thanx for the info..

Think you got it wrong.

Although I haven't seen you partitioning scheme, which you can post it here by the output of "fdisk-l", a logical partition always starts from the 5th position as the first 4 are reserved for the primaries (or 3 primaries + 1 extended).

Thus if your Post #6 is correct then Mandriva would be in hda5. Since Grub counts from zero so the 5th partition of the 1st disk would be known as (hd0,4).

Take a look at my original information in Post #7 and learn the Grub convention relative to Linux.

Your right it didn't work... i could boot linux but not xp it was looking on the wrong drive..

I just presumed as fedora was root (hd1,2) that the others would follow as they are on the same drive. eg. root (hd1,3),root (hd1,4) etc. And with XP being on (hd0,0) as that is a seperate H/D i thought that 0,2 etc would mean the same drive as XP and my Linux partitions are on the same drive as fedora. the way the drive is partitioned is as follows.

HardDrive:
Primary NTFS: WinXP (This is on it's own drive only 1 partition)(hd0,0)

HardDrive:
Primary NTFS: Drivers (i have this for new XP installs)
Primary NTFS: Storage (This holds my download etc for XP)(This drive also hosts Vista)
Primary Ext3: FEDORA NOW RUNNING HERE(hd1,2)

Extended:
Logical Ext3: Want to install ManDriva here
Logical Ext3: Want to install SuSe here
Logical Ext3: Free for further Linux Installs (Testing)
Logical Ext3: Free for further Linux Installs (Testing)
Logical Ext3: Free for further Linux Installs (Testing)
Logical Swap:

You should try to boot the system manually in a Grub prompt.

The Grub prompt is available to you by pressing "c" key as soon as the Grub screen appears.

First check to see if (hd0) is as you expected by command
If the information reported in Post #13 is accurate then you two XP can be booted as follow

1st one
For the 2nd XP in (hd1,0) I need to know how it was installed as you may need to hide the first one and swap the disk order if you disconnected the first disk when installing XP to the 2nd disk.

Confirm what problem you have now.

-----------------
Type help at Grub prompt to see what commands you can run.

From Grub prompt revert back to the original Grub screen

Win xp was installed 1st ages ago, then vista was installed about 4 weeks ago, when i choose XP from the grub menu i get the normal Microsoft os select screen. this isn't a problem i am fine with that.

It's this bit of the menu i can get working.

Extended:
Logical Ext3: Want to install ManDriva here
Logical Ext3: Want to install SuSe here
Logical Ext3: Free for further Linux Installs (Testing)
Logical Ext3: Free for further Linux Installs (Testing)
Logical Ext3: Free for further Linux Installs (Testing)

Shouldn't they be all on hd1...? i will look at the grub promt like you said.