Re: Windows recovered but no Linux

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

On Tue, 27 Aug 2013 04:26:02 +0000, caf4926 wrote:

> This info is insufficient and somewhat confusing, since you quote:
>> a partition that has both Opensuse and WindowsDoesn’t make much sense
> And you say it’s > 30 mbs with about 8 mbs free! How small is that! 30MB
> We don’t know what version of windows, or openSUSE Boot a Linux live
> cd/dvd and take a screen of your partitions in gparted or the output
> from

Indeed, and booting both OSes from a single partition seems unlikely at
best…

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

#2

On 2013-08-27 13:16, andy77586 wrote:
> To possible help others who may be searching for answers for this
> particular problem, some more details.

We need to see the partition table to help further, preferably as seen
from Linux:


fdisk -l

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))

#3

On 2013-08-27 17:16, andy77586 wrote:

> fdisk -l gave some different results.

Well, it lists several disks and several partitions, not one as your
post said.

Difficult to advice further. :-?

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))

#4

On Tue, 27 Aug 2013 11:16:02 +0000, andy77586 wrote:

> Thanks for the “no criticism” reply. :slight_smile:

Just to be clear, Carl and I weren’t being critical - we were trying to
understand what you wrote because it didn’t make sense to us. The
partition sizes you reported were way too small, and installing on a
Windows partition is not advised/not possible, depending on what
filesystem it is.

It’s customary to ask for clarification when things aren’t clear. :wink:

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

#5

[QUOTE=hendersj;2581599]On Tue, 27 Aug 2013 11:16:02 +0000, andy77586 wrote:

> Thanks for the “no criticism” reply. :slight_smile:

Just to be clear, Carl and I weren’t being critical - we were trying to
understand what you wrote because it didn’t make sense to us. The
partition sizes you reported were way too small, and installing on a
Windows partition is not advised/not possible, depending on what
filesystem it is.

It’s customary to ask for clarification when things aren’t clear. :wink:

Jim

–
Jim Henderson

I reported the facts as they were from my machine.

I feel that the Windows defragger trashed the grub boot loader material and the hidden areas which OpenSuse created when it was installed to my hard drive.

I used Windows tools to manually uninstall OpenSuse and reclaimed the new space.
For now, I am back to using a pen drive installation.

I have an external drive that I have considered installing to.

But I use it for backups of zipped files as well as disk images of my C: drive.

I don’t want to risk it getting trashed by putting any O.S. on it.

I have noticed that it is often a hit or miss when installing O.S.es on pen drives.

I have tested on 3 different brands with a high failure rate of installations.

Puppy Linux has the best track record.

Andy

#6

I have noticed that it is often a hit or miss when installing O.S.es on pen drives.
Yes

I feel that the Windows defragger trashed the grub boot loader material and the hidden areas which OpenSuse created when it was installed to my hard drive
Unlikely, I never had that happen anyway. But have had windows write to the MBR it’s boot code and destroy grub.
Or windows fails to install some major updates/service packs because grub is on the MBR
Both situations have easy solutions

I don’t want to risk it getting trashed by putting any O.S. on it.
I never had this happen either

#7

On 2013-08-29 05:12, andy77586 wrote:
>> I reported the facts as they were from my machine.

Er… sorry, facts have to be proven by showing the commands and the
output of those commands, not by your descriptions. Photos are ok. We
prefer to look at those commands and then draw our own conclusions.

No offense intended, we usually ask this of everybody.

For instance, you said:

“Partition was about 30 mbs with about 8 mbs free.”

That is impossible, and has not been proven. What that sentence says is
as unbelievable as “cows can fly” :slight_smile: - so please understand our reticence.

Instead, your fdisk output shows three disks:

sda, 2 TB, single Linux partition.

sdb, 500 GB, single Windows partition.

sdc, 500 GB, 2 Windows partitions, 3 Linux partitions.

That does not match at all your descriptions.

So please, if you still have a problem, you’d better start with a fresh
description backed by photos or command outputs. We will be pleased to help.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

#8

On Thu, 29 Aug 2013 03:12:58 +0000, andy77586 wrote:

>> I reported the facts as they were from my machine.

As pointed out, though, the numbers you gave don’t make sense, hence the
reason why we asked for clarification.

You can’t realistically install a working openSUSE installation in 30 MB
of disk space.

>> I feel that the Windows defragger trashed the grub boot loader material
>> and the hidden areas which OpenSuse created when it was installed to my
>> hard drive.

Windows’ defragmenter doesn’t touch Linux partitions - it doesn’t know
how to read them. Unless /boot ended up on your C: drive (which is
highly unlikely and certainly not default behaviour), I don’t see how
this can happen. It’s usually easier for us to work with what’s actually
on the drive rather than guesses made about what happened. :slight_smile:

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

#9

[QUOTE=robin_listas;2581754]On 2013-08-29 05:12, andy77586 wrote:
>> I reported the facts as they were from my machine.

Er… sorry, facts have to be proven by showing the commands and the
output of those commands, not by your descriptions. Photos are ok. We
prefer to look at those commands and then draw our own conclusions.

No offense intended, we usually ask this of everybody.

For instance, you said:

“Partition was about 30 mbs with about 8 mbs free.”

That is impossible, and has not been proven. What that sentence says is
as unbelievable as “cows can fly” :slight_smile: - so please understand our reticence.

Cheers / Saludos,

My Windows installation is in a 30 Mb partition.

Total hard drive space is 250 Mb on which both OpenSuse and Windows XP used to reside on.

Looks like the output of fdisk -l here is partially right.

If the TB below means Terrabyte, then it is impossible.

I have a 250 Mb hard drive and an external 500 Mb that has no O.S installed, it is only a storage disk.

It got right that there were 3 Linux partitions.

Instead, your fdisk output shows three disks:

sda, 2 TB, single Linux partition.

sdb, 500 GB, single Windows partition.
sdc, 500 GB, 2 Windows partitions, 3 Linux partitions.

Speaking of facts.

The MBR was damaged.

Fact: When it was restored, only Windows XP was in perfect working order.

Posting problems should not elicit a defensive posture from those who feel that OpenSuse is being criticized.

Windows has a few issue itself. :slight_smile:

Andy