Breezy Install CD destroyed FAT32 partition
After too many unsuccessful attempts to count to get Breezy Badger to dual-boot Windows XP on this HP notebook, I was amazed how a clean Install CD exclusively to /dev/sda - including putting GRUB on that external drive Linux partition - on an external FireWire 160GB Seagate disk also clobbered the OSshare FAT32 partition I'd carefully partitioned on internal IDE drive. 30GB IDE disk had been partitioned in Windows XP/Partition Magic so:
Code:
/dev/hda1 pri FAT16 small hidden HP Factory install for recovery Code:
/dev/sda1 pri ext3 / Linux partitioned boot, about 29GB Code:
dd if=/dev/sda1 of=bbboot.bin bs=512 count=1 Code:
C:\bbboot.bin="Start Ubuntu BREEZY BADGER" OK, also tried to mount/dev/hda5 at some point too. Feeling lost I reboot Windows and discover /dev/hda5 Windows FAT32 partition is no longer formatted and all files on it had disappeared. I had back-ups mirrored on an external disk partition so I reformatted /dev/hda5 again as FAT32 in WindowsXP Disk Mgt. Obviously am doing a bunch of things wrong. Can anyone help, you know baby steps, spelling it out line by line? Thanks. |
Quote:
Maybe you should change the thread title. It ain't the "Breezy Install CD" that destroyed that partition - one more guess as to who might be the responsible party. dd is the gun, you shot yourself in the foot. Full points for the backup - you're one of the few that plan ahead that well. The mistake you made was to have the outfile point to a physical resource - in your case a partition. This overwrites from the start of the partition - rather than using any filesystem that might be defined on said partition. What you need to do is use a mountpoint reference for the of; something like "of=/mnt/floppy/bbboot.bin" or "/mnt/shared/bbboot.bin" - whatever is appropriate (and mounted). df command will tell you what you have to work with. |
Many thanks, syg00, for schooling. Very helpful.
Tell me how to change thread title and I'll happily do so to "DD can destroy a FAT32 partition" but LQ Edit only lets posters edit the body of posts, not thread title. |
You're welcome - hope you get it to work. HP can apparently be a pain, but you should be able to get grub to boot everything. Regardless, the strategy you're pursueing should work fine.
As for dd, it can destroy any partition. Not to mention whole disks - handy tool, but brutal ... ;) |
syg00,
If I can rob your next two seconds, please confirm this command sequence will do the trick next time try Ubuntu 5.10 Install CD (during install, in root shell) Code:
mkdir /mnt/hda5 #create mountpoint for IDE Windows C: FAT32 partition TIA. |
Remove the copy - dd will create the file correctly on the vfat partition.
As you described, the copy (to C: ) is done once you reboot XP. You probably shouldn't need the type switch in the mount command either, but won't do any harm by using it. |
Ta very much, syg00.
I'll take a crack at this tomorrow, time permitting. [EDITED 12-09-2005] For what it's worth, as installed Madriva Linux 2006 on external 160GB FireWire this is probably not the forum to continue this thread, I've still got ways to go to dual-boot with Windows XP. Thanks to syg00 for teaching me Mountpoints, DD worked fine. GRUB threw an Error 17 when selecting 'Start Mandriva Linux' in NTLDR boot option. So loaded Ubuntu Breezy LiveCD to mount external drive / then startx. Xorg stopped that. Wonder if it's because LiveCD won't release screen? I've copied a bunch of things I did if anybody wants to chip in here. First time tried launch Mandriva 2006 on external /dev/sda5 during Ubuntu 5.10 LiveCD session. Any line separators are for readability. Code:
May be interesting to do another Ubuntu Breezy Install CD install in lieu of the Mandriva 2006 but frankly am getting impression Linux partitioners are encountering problems Windows XP Disk Management doesn't face with this external FireWire Seagate ST316002 disk. Probably a Linux FireWire or USB 2.0 driver issue as IEEE1394a disk access seems to share a lot of USB2.0, SCSI common protocol or code. |
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