cannot create 1MB ext2 partition on HDD
 

I'm attempting to use fdisk or GParted here, but these programs will not allow me to create a 1MB ext2 partition at the beginning of the disk (not able to apply partition "constraints" error). If I use fdisk, it will default to an 8MB partition.

DiskLabel type: MSDOS
Heads:255
sectors/track 63
cylinders 38913

Cylinder rounding I would bet.

unchecked
 

In Gparted there is an option for cylinder rounding--I unchecked it. If you leave the option checked it will not allow you to enter 1MB for a size. I will try using fdisk again, but specifying the number of cylinders manually rather than the size of the partition.

What on earth are you going to do with a 1MB partition??

This aside, is it not possible to tell fdisk to work in sectors? I believe that is the way partitions are described in the actual data in the table.

PS: specifying the number of cylinders is not going to work--you need a fraction of a cylinder.

what difference does it make...
 

why I want to do it? If you know how to do it then that's fine. I have my reasons.

Anyway, I found that the difficulty is with the geometry of the drive.

Thanks anyhow.

If you really *had* to do it, you could run the drive non-LBA. Should work then.
The drive would be limited to 8 Gig (there-abouts) total allocation.

Probably do-able, but wasteful.