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LILO Doesn't Work With 160GB Drive

All,

I've tried to partition the last 32GB of my 160GB harddrive (position 129GB-160GB) with Mandrake 10.1, but the LILO bootloader keeps returning code L 01 01 01... upon reboot. I've tried making the Windows XP partition (first 128GBs) the boot partition, but run across the same L 01 01 01... error when I select the option to start Mandrake Linux from the Windows loader menu. I'm beginning to wonder if my hard drive is too large and cannot boot the partition beyond the first 128GBs. For the record, I've tried using bootpart and a variety of other methods to get this to boot up properly, but to no avail. Any thoughts?... Ben....

From man lilo :

Code:

The boot process takes place in two stages.  The first stage loader  is

      a single sector, and is loaded by the BIOS or by the loader in the MBR.

      It loads the multi-sector second stage loader, but is very  space  lim-

      ited.  When  the  first stage loader gets control, it types the letter

      "L"; when it is ready to transfer control to the second stage loader it

      types  the letter "I".  If any error occurs, like a disk read error, it

      will put out a hexadecimil error code, and  then  it  will  re-try  the

      operation.  All hex error codes are BIOS return values, except for the

      lilo-generated 40, 99 and 9A.  A partial list of error codes follows:



              00  no error

              01  invalid disk command

              0A  bad sector flag

              0B  bad track flag

              20  controller failure

              40  seek failure (BIOS)

              40  cylinder>1023 (LILO)

              99  invalid second stage index sector (LILO)

              9A  no second stage loader signature (LILO)

              AA  drive not ready

              FF  sense operation failed

So it looks like a disk error. What sort of HDD is it? IDE, SCSI, or just maybe....SATA?

The hard drive is a refurbished 160GB IDE drive on a 1.4GHz PC with 384MB of RAM. Obviously, it's not the world's newest hardware, but I've decided to start learning Linux on the cheap. Thanks for the error codes. I've been looking for the LILO documentation, but couldn't find it in any of my web searches. Do you have a URL?... Ben....

for lilo documentation, type "man lilo" from the console.

There are several options:

1. Upgrade to a newer BIOS
2. Look for a BIOS hack
3. Use a third-party IDE controller

I've used 160GB drives and larger with Linux (running a 160 right now) and previous to installing a hacked BIOS it would only see 137GB of the drive.

Thank you so much for your help! I've actually updated the BIOS, but the drive size still only shows 138GB of the 160GB. I tried to shrink the WindowsXP partition, but without Partition Magic I can't shrink an NTFS5 partition. Instead of purchasing a $70 software package for a single use, I've decided to play is safe and reinstall WindowsXP in a smaller partition and then install Linux OSs in the remaining portions below the 138GB watermark. Thanks again for all the help you guys gave me... Ben....

P.S. I checked out that flash animation about BBS posting. What a riot! Just as an FYI, I did check thoroughly before posting ;-)