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Re: 850M disk problems




On Tue, 16 May 1995, Ilan Finci wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> The disk is 850M but since my DOS couldn't recognize it a Disk Manager was 
> installed on it. The disk was partitioned (using the Disk Manager) to 250M and
> 600M.

Well, I see no reason to use disk manager. The first partition should be
low enough to manage under dos alone, after all it is WELL inside the
1024 cylinder limit of the PC BIOS.

> When I've tried to install Linux I've ran fdisk and when using the print
> option
> I got the following result (only the first partition exist as DOS since I
> used
> DOS's fdisk to erase the second one) :

You will need to make TWO (at least) partitions for Linux. The first one MUST
be under 1024 cylinders (the one that / is on -  the boot partition).
The second (and third, if you use swap space) partition may be above that.

> device     boot   begin    start   end    blocks    Id  system
> /dev/hda1   *       1        1     1653   833111+   54    Unknown
> 
> Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
> phys=(628,15,63) logical=(1652,15,63)
> 
> Partition 1 does not start on cylinder boundary:
> phys=(0,0,2) should be (0,1,1)

If the boot partition is UNDER 1024, disregard these warning, especially
if you're using a new fdisk. And yes, the 8-month old fdisk for Linux is
much too old. Get a new one.

> 3. If I don't use the Disk Manager - does DOS will use really only 250M (for 
>  the first partition) and then I can use the rest from Linux, or the 250M 
>  will be spread on more disk space than this?

Disk Manager has nothing to do with this. 250MB is quite small enough to be
accessed without translation. And no, it is not spread. Of course, I suggest
delousing your disk (i.e. removing the MS-DOS viruses), but I am nuts - 
700MB and not 1K for DOS.

> ifinci@cs.huji.ac.il

---MAV

Marc A. Volovic (marc@leonardo.ls.huji.ac.il)

                 Linguists do it cunningly