Hi,
I have slack 10.2 and linux 2.6.19.2 with seagate 80g sata hdd.
here is the output of #fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 2550 20482843+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 2551 7780 42009975 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3 8418 9728 10530604 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 7781 8417 5116702+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 2551 5100 20482843+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda6 7651 7780 1044193+ 82 Linux swap

Partition table entries are not in disk order

and here output of #df

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 10530276 5777692 4752584 55% /
/dev/sda1 20472816 6539584 13933232 32% /mnt/hd/c
/dev/sda5 20472816 19377504 1095312 95% /mnt/hd/d
/dev/sda6 20472848 15805056 4667792 78% /mnt/hd/f

See partition /dev/sda6. Its ambiguous. I know its of type swap, I created it using disk director in winxp. I wanna say that the output of fdisk -l seems correct to me. *But* in order to mount a windows partition I have to mount /dev/sda6 (????) I dont understand, I use sda6 in fstab to mount the partition and sda7 as swap partition (though I know sda6 is of type swap because swap is of 1G and not 20G as shown in fdisk -l)

Whats this????

The second entry (/dev/sda2) is an extended partition. There is a hole from sectors 5101 to 7650. I bet that is the partition that is referred to in the df listing as hda6. Was /dev/hda6 created in windows? Otherwise according to "fdisk -l" you only have 2 windows partitions, not counting /sda2.

I think you need to back up everything in your third partition and recreated it in the 5101 to 7650 space. You could try not formatting at first and then after rebooting, see what the partition table looks like after that.

Which version of windows are you using? Because now it(windows) resides in extended partition while windows xp installs itself on primary one. You can check /etc/lilo.conf and see what partitions are used during boot by lilo.

@jschiwal
can u please elaborate a little bit ..

@Alien_Hominid
I am using windows XP SP2

For clarity here is picture of my partitions which I made using Acronis disk director suite 10.2
http://omkarenator.googlepages.com/partitions.JPG

I think the problem is severe cause I CANNOT install distros other than slack; not ubuntu, not debian, not gentoo.
This is a general problem. The gparted program which comes with every distro shows my hdd as UNALLOCATED

Do you have to make partitions with fdisk or such utility to be recognize bu linux (except slack )

..and sorry for late response

Thanks all

A couple of points; your swap partition shouldn't be mounted to a regular mount point. The mount point should be simply 'swap'.

Windows likes it best if you have a Windows partition(any size) at the beginning and end of your extended partition. If you can repartition your disk that way it will probbaly relieve some of the problems. You can use a Windows tools to create all your partitions of the size that you want, then use Linux to just change the partition type and reformat the ones you want for Linux.

@gnashley
I get you. But what about gparted of ANY distro *not* recognizing my partitions?
Is it a common problem with SATA? Is anyone having it? Finally, how to solve it?
You saw the ext3 partition, its actually my extended partition E:\ I can change it any moment. But the problem was there when it was Eie start and end of extended partn with fat32). So I dont think it will make any difference.

Thanks for the help.

gparted definitely has problems with NTFS support on the latest live CD, it was unusable for me.

You should be careful to keep track of your partition table and make sure the type flags are correct. Don't use winbloze "tools" to do anything outside your winbloze partition unless you like reinstalling your systems If you're going to use Linux or BSD, learn to use Linux fdisk for all your partitioning. I have never ever seen it do anything wrong.

If you're going to start again, boot a live CD like Slax or Kanotix and wipe the partition table. Create a primary NTFS partition for winbloze. Create partitions for your other OS, remembering you get up to 4 total or 3 primaries and #4 is extended and then all the logical partitions you have space for. Install winbloze. Install your other OS. Configure your boot loader. Enjoy.

Thanks for the help. But if I redo all things (ie partitioning using fdisk and installing in the manner you told) will I be able to install any distro without trouble? I mean, will gparted recognize my partitions? Or is it a hardware problem (SATA)? I want to experiment with lots of distros, but because of this partitioning thing, I am uanble to do so. Rest of my hardware is really good, I bought it, so I wont be troubled by insufficient resources for any distro.

Thank you.

A lot of guys are running Slackware and other distros on SATA drives.