Partitioning and cfdisk how-to and how to ungoof your MBR

[Celebwath]

I have a slight problem: my girlfriends computer has been dual booting between Knoppix and WinXP. However some time ago the windows kernel died while patching the system. I can still get to all the files on hda1 (where the XP was installed) from linux, but it cannot be booted. I do not think that there is any way of repairing it, and that is where the problem comes: if I have understood it correctly, re-installing windows will rewrite the mbr and prevent booting into linux.

So the questions is there a way to install XP so that it will allow booting into Knoppix directly, or a way of "fixing" the mbr after the installation? There's quite a lot of data that should be saved and the easiest way would be to just transfer it to the linux partitions and re-transfer it after the installation (there are 2 fat32 partitions for linux-windows interaction on the hd), not to mention that there's quite enough to do configuring and patching the windows side of things.

Any advice?

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Well, if you boot a KNOPPIX liveCD, you should be able to mount both partitions, right?

Regards,
AJG

[Discerner0]

I have a slight problem: my girlfriends computer has been dual booting between Knoppix and WinXP. However some time ago the windows kernel died while patching the system. I can still get to all the files on hda1 (where the XP was installed) from linux, but it cannot be booted. I do not think that there is any way of repairing it, and that is where the problem comes: if I have understood it correctly, re-installing windows will rewrite the mbr and prevent booting into linux.

So the questions is there a way to install XP so that it will allow booting into Knoppix directly, or a way of "fixing" the mbr after the installation? There's quite a lot of data that should be saved and the easiest way would be to just transfer it to the linux partitions and re-transfer it after the installation (there are 2 fat32 partitions for linux-windows interaction on the hd), not to mention that there's quite enough to do configuring and patching the windows side of things.

Any advice?

I don't know about XP. I once accidentally managed to install Windows 2000 Pro - which I've heard is similar to XP - after I installed Linux. I had already created and formatted a NTFS partition in an attempt to install W2KPro, which wouldn't go. In the desperate attempt to get something to work, after I figured out the problem I happened to install (Mandrake) Linux, which left the NTFS partition blank. Then I stuck the Windows 2000 Pro installation CD in, and it installed Windows to the pre-formatted NTFS partition without messing up the MBR or LILO or Mandrake Linux. So I recommend that you stick the XP installation CD in and see what happens. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[PythonyTJM]

The OS that is on the computer currently is windows 98.


-PythonyTJM

[Discerner0]

As per Rickenbackerus' post at the start of this thread,

Boot w/ win98 boot floppy, at the a: propmt enter:

fdisk /mbr

You do have a Windows 98 boot floppy? If not, perhaps the *fdisk /mbr* command can be run from the Windows 98 CD, or a boot floppy created on another machine which is running 98.

Or get to work and convince your girlfriend that Linux is better than Windows anyway.

[alucard]

Hi peeps,
im not sure whether i did it correctly and im a noob at this.

I have 3 hdisk in my com with the first installed with win xp pro.
2nd and 3th are mainly for storage but i have clean out the 3rd hdisk for linux.
I booted knoppix from the cd and "sudo knoppix-installer" from the terminal.
Qpart boot up and i formatted 5gig and 1 gig.With both as ext2.Im thinkin i did something wrong there.Anyway i continued with the installation and booted knoppix.Everything seems normal but soon i realised i cant configure my adsl/ppoe connection.I went to the info center or control center and found that kernel is not installed or something.Im new to linux and is willin to learn how.I read the FAQ from this site but cant find anything tat helps.
Thinking there shd be a noob article with step by step installation help.

[Cuddles]

With the new v3.4 of Knoppix, I was seriously looking at changing my "one partition" hdd install, into a more, appropriate, multi-partition install....

Examining the "scheme" that Rickenbacherus has suggested, I come up with the following:

hda1 - primary, bootable, ext2 FS, and of 50 MB in size.
hda2 - primary, reiser FS, and of "remaining" device size - in the example, 20 gb, or 19.95 gb.

hda2 is then broken down into chunks like so...
***** logical, reiser FS, 3 gb - for use by /root
***** logical, swap, 500 mb - for use as swap
***** logical, reiser FS, 1.5 gb - for use as /home

First, assuming the example hard drive device was a 20 gb hard drive, where does the extra space go???? ( did I miss something somewhere? ) I only count a device usage of 5.05 gb...

Is the excess "free" space on the /hda2 device intended for adding more users? ( each of them getting the approximate 1.5 gb as well? )

Second, considering I have a 41 gb hard drive, in the "current" scheme:

/hda1 - 39.5 gb in ext3 FS - for Knoppix (everything)
/hda3 - 500 mb for swap.

Could I just break up my /hda1 into two primary partitions, one as /hda1, the other as /hda2, and then forgo the swap within my /hda2 as in the above suggestion? ( since I already have the swap on the /hda3 in my current scheme )

Third, concerning the sizes suggested:
*** 1 ) is 3 gb enough for the root user, or should I bump considering I have a 41 gb hard drive.
*** 2 ) is the 1.5 gb intended for "all" users, or do you break the users /home areas off from the /home to a seperate partition. Also, should I bump the size, as in the /root above, due to having a larger drive than in the example?
*** 3 ) should I use the ext3 or the reiser for my file system? I have a 41 gb device, broken down to 39.5 gb for Knoppix, and .5 gb for swap - in ext3 - and even though I know the ext3 partition is 39.5 gb, KDiskFree only reports 37.3 gb - is this a "overhead" for using ext3, or is it just normal to not get 3.2 gb from your device in Knoppix????

I want to be able to go to this multi-partition scheme with the new kernel 2.6 install, since I usually have to "gut" my system everytime I need to upgrade, and this multi-partition scheme seems to me, to keep the /home data from having to be re-created when you need to do a new hdd install...

Thanks for any, and all, advice on this,
Ms. Cuddles

[alexidoia]

Okay, I have been spending my afternoon with cfdisk, I understand how it works, but one thing:
I have decided to have the following partitions on my system:
- a swap partition
- a partition for /
- a partition for /usr
- a partition for /usr/local
- a partition for /tmp
- a partition for /var
- a partition for /var/mail
- a partition for /home

that makes a total of 8 partitions, I understand that I can only do 4 partitions, but if one of those is logical I can then create other partitions inside that same one, so:

How can I do this ? I seem to be able to create 4 partitions but I can't do more than that even if one is logical, or cfdisk can't do this ?? Please explain me how I do my 8 partitions.

Alex

[jjmac]

alexidoia,

I'd kill all that. Just make two primaries then
devote the rest to an "extended" sliced up
into logicals.

My own scheme is basically:

/dev/hdb1 ... 100MB boot partition
/dev/hdb2 ... 250MB swap
/dev/hdb3 ... extended

/dev/hd5 ... logical
.
.
.
etc

It dosen't really matter what tool your using,
cfdisk, fdisk etc. The main point being, to
get a logical you first need to make an
extended partition, in which the logicals wil
be defined.


Ms Cuddles

June is a while ago but, ...

>>
hda1 - primary, bootable, ext2 FS, and of 50 MB
in size.
hda2 - primary, reiser FS, and of "remaining"
device size - in the example, 20 gb, or 19.95 gb.

hda2 is then broken down into chunks like so...
***** logical, reiser FS, 3 gb - for use by /root
***** logical, swap, 500 mb - for use as swap
***** logical, reiser FS, 1.5 gb - for use as /home
>>


It's my own fault i suppose too, for trying
to read a page with a shocking hang over, but....

The second "primary" you have there... you
do mean it as an extended don't you ?.

How can you slice up a primary, unless it's
some sought of BSD partition type ?

As for the missing free space, i haven't read
"Rickenbacherus" input as yet (my head is killing
me), but i will. May be the answers there some
where, or, possibly it's to do with the "reiser" fs.

Iv'e been reading up a little on reiser4 lately,
it certainly seems like a completely different
approach to maintaining a file system than
that used by other formates.

jm

[outanet]

well, just to add a bit after doing this sort of thing quite alot.

firstly, for ntfs users, until writing to ntfs from knoppix has been resolved, its often a good idea to have a spare fat partition so that files can be edited by both os's. Personaly, my win2k is on a fat partition not NTFS.

secondly, the swap partition is usually said to be 2 and a half times the amount of ram in the machine, ie 128 m of ram should use about 350m swap as a rule of thumb. the theory of more swap = faster machine is wrong, your hard drive is slower than your ram. 1G of swap will just churn like a washing machine. If you have 1G of ram, you probably dont need a swap and you are better off without.(for a desktop machine)
If space is at a premium, you can forgo a swap partition in favour of a swap file which does the same thing., you can then reduce the size of it as you squeeze everything in to your 900 meg drive!

thirdly, knoppix will automaticaly mount and use a swap partition on a drive, so if you are going to be editing partitions, ensure you specify noswap as a cheat code, and refuse the offer of a swap file, or qtparted will vomit. on low memory machines which complain at this, use twm as a desktop.

lastly, roughly every 10th attempt at using partition magic, i have encountered an error, conversly, as long as i have defragged first, i have never encountered an error using qtparted even ntfs, though i have found that it is not very good at logical volumes (makes numerous physical drives work like one large drive, 'man lvm') or extended partitions, but then it is rare that I come across a machine large enough to warrant them, and when i do, i prefer to use a raid array.
Dont fall in to the recent trend to use extended partitions on your 300G drive like directories, it will slow your machine down and makes the drive work harder, plus you will eventually try to resize them and lose everything. (an oppinion.)

even more lastly, usb dongles (thumb drives) are often made up of 4 extended partitions, this is because of the manufacture process, and should be exchanged for one complete partiton before using for home or config storage.

but then again, i could be talking rubbish. the wife often thinks so!