D: gone in Win2k (after dual boot)
 

Hello everybody,

I'm new to Linux. I got Mandrake 7.1 a couple of days ago and installed it as a dual boot with my exsisting win2k.

What I did was: Deleted the 3rd partition with partition magic for Linux to install itself on and left the first two unchanged as FAT32. Fired up the bootable cd, followed a normal costumized installation and let (Lilo/gump) to make me a dual boot.

Now Linux comes up just fine, works smooth and I love it. Win2k also comes up BUT....the problem I'm encountering is that "Win2k does NOT recognize my second partition which is FAT32!" I fired up Partition Magic and it shows 2 partitions, one being my primary windows partition as FAT32 and the other as a TYPE85! (the second and third partition combined in size)

Now in Win2k I have only C: and NO D: wheras when I get back to Linux everything is there "intact"! It recognizes my win_c and win_d partitions as vfat and can access them without a problem.

Can someone please tell me what exactly is going on? What did I do wrong in the installation process? And what should I do to get my D: back in windows (it's my data partition, a matter of life and death :D )

I guess I can still add another hard drive and back up my data in Linux without any risk, right?

Thanks very much in advance.

You should back this up before its too late.

But you can try to boot up with your win2K disk and see during like the partition setup and see if it recognizes it there or maybe run fdisk to see if it is recognizable. I am not totally sure though, if Linux sees it, can you see any files on the partition from Linux, if so, sounds to me like a Windows problem clearly.

I would make a folder in Linux and copy all of D: to that or if you have a burner put all the files on a cd.Im asuming of course you have enough space in Linux to do this.when that is done use linux fdisk to change the partition to type b which is vfat.Sometimes if you do it once like this you may still see your data from windows.If not format it from windows and then go back to linux and copy all the files back.
Good Luck.

Yes, I can see everything in Linux.

I was going to boot win2k with a start up disk, will let you know about it. Thanks. :)

Unfortunately I don't have enough room in my hard drive. Can I add another drive with no risk?

Hello
I would stick another drive in, and use Ghost to copy it. You can then tinker with this disc safely, leaving the original undisturbed. Once you figure it out, you can have a massive data disc, or do regular ghosts for backup.
Jim

I just checked it with fdisk (in dos). It shows 2 non-dos partitions. First one obviously is my primary FAT32 and the second is D: and Linux partition combined (just like what partition magic showed me as TYPE85)

Ghost? Ok, I'll see what I can do. I'm not familiar with it though.

Ghost is like partition magic, but it works better when you have to copy a partition, you can copy the C:\ partition so you could have your windows and all the stuff without reinstalling windows. Then boot from linux and mount the second harddrive and copy all the information to the other harddrive in a D:\ partition.


See ya.:p

I still don't know what I did wrong that made this problem in the first place. I have installed Linux a couple more times following the same procedure (but this time changing the size of / ,swap and /home partitions). There is no change in the way windows recognizes the partitions. I'm wondering what exactly could be going wrong.

Did you try Disk Manager under Win2k? Does it show the partition? What details does it show?

I can't run everything on windows, my start button doesnt work (for obvious reasons)

I tried partition magic and it shows a combination of D:\ and Linux partitions as TYPE85.

hmm..maybe I missed something...if Win2k is installed completely on the first partition, it should still work fine. I don't really understand why your start button won't work or why you can't work normally from within windows. What was on the D: drive. Just data or system files from win2k? Just trying to get all information so maybe we can help...

Ok the problem here is that Partition Magic has just screw up your Extended partitions.

Solution:

1) Get another Harddrive, and Copy your C:\ Partition to the other harddrive.

2)Copy all the stufff that you have in the Type 85 of windows to the other harddrive so, you are making the backup of all the stuff that you have under windows. Once you have made the backup of all your stuff from the Harddrive 1 to the HD2. Let's work on the First one.

3) To have your windows 2k Working with dual boot, you need a C:\ partition in FAT16 for windows to boot, and lilo to regconize that stuff. Use Partition magic if you wish but use the emergency disk. (If you are using PQMagic 5.0 under W2k You have to apply the patch before use it)

4) Made the partitions in this way:

This are primary partitions

100 MB FAT 16 for windows to boot
15 MB EXT2 for Linux to Boot (has to be inside the 1024 cylinder rule -- Before the 2Gig Limit)

Extended partitions

Made an extended partition of the rest of the space, inside the extended made this:

A partition of NTFS or FAT 32 of the Size that you want for windows
Swap partiton for linux
Root partition for linux

The bad news here is that I think you have to reinstall windows 2k. You need have windows 2k installed first before windows.

When you are installing lilo, do not install it in the MBR, install it in the /boot partition for the dual boot.

I hope this would help you.
:p

win2k is installed on C:\ but I had some applications installed on other partitions. I used partition magic to make my 5 partition hard drive into 3, moved the application files to C:\. But I guess I may have some links to D:\ in there.

SkYzOpReNiCk, thanks for the info. But are you sure it's partition magic's fault. It did a good job as far as I can remember. I first merged some partitions to reorganize my HD. After I reached a 3 partition setting I just deleted the 3rd partition. I tested the effect and it worked perfectly fine. Windows would come up recognizing only 2 partitions c:\ and d:\ and not noticing e:\ (because it was now unallocated space).

It was only AFTER installing Linux on e:\, that my windows couldn't see d:\

Doesn't this mean that Linux has screwed s.th up?

Do I really have to make Linux boot from under cylinder 1024? If I remember correctly it's not necessary anymore.

BTW, partition magic shows both partitions it recognizes as "primary":

c:\ fat32 primary
type85 primary

maybe I should have addressed this when I was deleting e:\ ?

Well, it happened to me once.

One thing that you could do, is to partition the unallocated space with partition magic. Made the partitions for linux. Make sure that your D:\ partition is an Extended partition, because windows cannot recognize 2 primary partitions. Under linux you could have more than 1 Primary partition.

Then made your linux partitions, as primary at least the boot partition.

I know that the latest Linux Distro dont have this problem with lilo anymore I don't know if Mandrake has this feature fixed, I guess that the answer is YES. But I rarely has use Mandrake, so I'm not sure about it.

I hope this help.

thanks...

yes, I guess Mandrake has it fixed. I'm using version 7.1 which coresponds to, what, Red Hat 6.x ?

anyway, I had that in mind first. To format the unallocated as Linux using partition magic but I read on one of these forums that this would arise problems and it would be better to leave it unformatted and let the Linux installation do the job. So I did it that way.

I gave it a thought and I think I have the solution.

If I could restore my MBR to its previous state (win2k only) and make GRUB (lilo) be installed on hda6 (Linux root) then maybe my problem would be resolved. What do you think?

I have to make sure about that 1024 limitation, though....

Not Sure About it. I know that Mandrake is very similar to Red Hat. But I don't which version correspont to which version.

I know that is better to leave linux to format the partition, But to make sure that is not going to happend again, you could made the partitions with Partition Magic, then when you are installing linux, the only thing that you have to do, is mount the partition and format them again, you dont have to create them. So maybe that will help you to keep the Windows partitions in Windows and the Linux partitions in Linux.

Well, IF you could restore the MBR for W2K, that will be a miracle, because I dont know how to restore it, I have screw up W2k 2 times, before find out where to install lilo. I'm not sure where was suppose to be installed I always forgot where I install it.

I guest that it was in the root partition. Try to made it in this way, so maybe linux will not get both partitions in one.