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adamherb
08-09-2005, 04:54 PM
I recently partitioned my hdb, and there are some issues.
Hda is my Windows partition and is ok, but hdb has a large NTFS partition that is used for backup (hdb1)
HDb2 is swap
HDb3 is where I want to put Linux.
I had that configuration, and wanted to replace the installation on b3 with another, so in Mandriva's Drakx, I deleted it, and made A new partition. Now my partition table is like this.
Device Start End Blocks ? Type
b1 1 8424 67665748? 7 NTFS
b2 8425 8555 1052257 82 Linux swap
b3 8556 9586 8281507 5 Extended
b5 8556 9586 8281476 83 Linux
I cant remember the number of blocks for b1 exactly, and I hope it isn't a problem.
b3 and b5 are on top of each other. I didn't even want to have a b5, so please tell me a way to fix this with Knoppix.

Harry Kuhman
08-09-2005, 05:14 PM
b3 and b5 are on top of each other. I didn't even want to have a b5, so please tell me a way to fix this with Knoppix.
Of course b5 is on top of b3. B3 is an extended partition, b5 is a logical partition inside the extended partition. This will work. If you don't want to do it that way and want your Linux partition in a real partition rather than an extended logical partition you will need to remove the partition you call b5, then remove b3, then create a physical Linix partition in the partition table.

Sorry, I can't walk you through the exact steps using Knoppix, I don't use it to partition drives. I like the free partitioning tool Ranish Partition Manager (http://www.ranish.com/part/) which runs under windows (or runs "stand alone" under XOSL (http://www.ranish.com/part/xosl.htm)). But if you really want to do it with the Knoppix partitioning tools you certainly should be able to do so.

UnderScore
08-09-2005, 05:40 PM
http://img304.imageshack.us/img304/2287/diagram12me.th.png (http://img304.imageshack.us/img304/2287/diagram12me.png)
Grey = the disk
Green = primary partitions
Pink = logical partitions inside an extended
White= usable free space or unusable space
My drawing could certainly be better but it is a good description of your situation. In the end your partition layout is fine and there is nothing wrong with it. The Drakex program first created a new extended partition. A extended partition. is a special partition used to get around the limit of 4 primary partitions. So a extended partition holds other partitions.

Guides on partitioning can be found on google. I found this one. http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/structPartitions-c.html

adamherb
08-09-2005, 06:22 PM
But then when I try to install Mandrake it tells me that it can't read the aprtition table. I dont know how to fix it.
This is the error
"I cant read the partition table of device hdb, it is too corrupted for me :(. I can try to go on erasing over bad partitions (all data will be lost) The other solution is to not allow DrakeX to modify the partition table. (The error is /proc/partition doesnt agree with drakex 3 !=0:
)"
It really has the smiley.
The only thing that I wanted to do was delete a partition and make another in its place.