Trying to add partition with XP partition mgr = no bootable partitions

Hi everyone, first post.
I have little experience with Linux, took a course, read bulletproof linux. That was several years ago. My friend convinced me to set up opensuse kde with him, so I did.

Set it up a few days ago on my semi-new Hitachi 1TB drive. XP was installed first, cloned from the previous (failing) drive, and took me forever to get it working.
It was set up as:
Hitachi HD:
1st part: XP (250gb)
2nd Part: opensuse system
3rd Part: opensuse swap
4th Part: opensuse data

(2/3 may be swapped)
I still had 600GB unpartitioned and went to add a new 250GB partition via windows xp disk manger.
Next thing I know, disk manager freezes and errors. I reboot for other reasons, and am greeted by grub (never used it before) stating …well stating nothing.
I tried the opensuse install DVD repair option and got corrupted video at first. Then I tried safe settings for booting the installer.
I’m now in the YaST2 repair manager.

I tried to recover partitions, but it’s locked to scan only Partition 1, which is my XP partition. It says no valid linux root partitions exist.

um… help?

I also tried loading the linux root partition with grub (didn’t know the namescheme for the HD’s, but I think it’s \dev\sda for HD0), no dice. I can’t seem to find any hard drives through grub, but I’m unfamiliar with it.

My goal is to get my xp back up and running. My guess is that XP tried to edit the partition table and screwed up something.
The partition listing through YaST2 partmanager shows all my partitions.

A good walkthrough would be great too, but at the moment I’m just going :sarcastic: Really? It was that easy to annihilate all my bootable systems?
I could also nuke the linux partition and use XP’s recovery console and fixboot, then worry about the linux later. I haven’t gotten it set up completely yet.

Thanks in advance
-William

Um, I don’t see an option to edit my post, but I needed to add this:

hardware:
ASUS a7n8x-e deluxe with athlon xp3200+, 2GB RAM, both hard drives are SATA running off a SIL 3142 controller with updated firmware (to handle the TB drive), Nvidia ti4800

that’s all for now. I was going to edit to avoid a bump, but… bump I guess.

William

You need to look at the partition setup. Because you have a large disk, you want to be able to set up several partitions.
Setting up as primary partitions only allow 4 partitions.
You need to set up winxp on the first primary partition and then create a new extended partition on the rest of the drive. This will now allow you to create the required logical drives you want to add.

BTW, you need to have winxp service pack 3 to be able to boot it from sata drive.

I think I managed to not mention that I had both opensuse and windows xp up and running. I hadn’t gotten deep enough into opensuse to get the internet up, but everything was booting.

I just need some help getting the partitions fixed so that grub recognizes my linux and xp partitions as bootable. That’s where my problem lies.

PS I managed to boot just fine from SATA with an original XP-pro-VLI cd (no service packs integrated). I just needed to load the drivers during install.

OK, At his point, you need to fix you partition scheme to what works for you. As someone experience in Windows and Linux I will say this:

  1. You can have up to 4 Primary partitions (XP like other Windows versions only likes to see 2 primary)
  2. First Primary partition must be for Windows XP
  3. Usually, The second Partition is defined as Extended so that you can create up to 15 Logical drives.
  4. Due to inherant issue’s with Windows 2K, XP, Vista, 7 crashes it is good to have at least 1 Logical drive for data to be kept separate from your windows OS. This means you are not at so much risk of loss.
  5. If you intend to do any video editing or movie making have a separate Logical for it to make your life easier. It in this case should be >100GB for serious work
  6. Remenber Linux is capable of seeing and working with the windows partitions and having data and win OS separate also will make life easier
  7. Linux requires as least 2 partitions (swap and / )
  8. Linux can create and manage your partitions way better than Windows ever can
  9. Windows XP must be fully installed first as it will overwrite the mbr of the HDD which will destroy GRUB access to Linux
  10. When you decide how you want your partitions set-up, use Linux to create partitions and install the basic system you want first then install Windows XP in full Then use Linux recovery to fix the Grub bootloader
  11. sda is first HDD sdb is second etc, sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 are primaries and sda5 to sda19 refer to Logical drives with-in primary defined as a Extended.

When you tried to use GRUB to boot Linux, you were telling GRUB which Harddisk (sda) to use but not which partition of sda to use
and this why it couldn’t do it.

Maybe start with a list before you start so you have something to work from such as:
sda1 Primary for windows XP
sda2 Extended for logical drive sda5 to sda19
sda3 Linux swap
sda4 Linux ext4 /
sda5 First logical in sda2 for windows data
sda6 second logical in sda2 for next drive
possibly for:

  • another windows data use like maybe video/movies
  • Linux /boot (usually only 100MB)
  • Linux /usr
  • Linux /home (if defined is usually made fairly large)

hope this helps

Another point DO NOT use Windows to partition. Windows will ignore or misinterpret other partitions since it refuses to acknowledge that any other OS could possible exist. Use Linux to add addition partitions. Gparted is a Linux based utility that can be very useful.

Once you have the partitions you can format as you would like.

And everything that techwiz03 said

Alll right then.

So, I booted to the opensuse dvd, nuked the corrupted logical partition on the TB HD.

I used the repair tools to set up new partitions (about 6 beyond the windows partition).

So, then… Is my windows boot screwed up? I know that’s like asking what color my laptop is, but I was entering “boot /dev/sda1” and it didn’t boot.
If it is, am I going to have to use fixboot/fixmbr, get windblows working, then re-do all this formatting?

Heh, I’m using reiserfs for its speed, on my friend’s recommendation. Any idea how long it’s going to take to format this 600GB of space? It’s been sitting at the repair toolbox screen with the “working” cursor showing for about an hour now, after I hit apply.
We’ll see in the morning.

I’m not seeing any hard drive activity lights… :X

Can from a console

su -

copy the output of

fdisk -l

and post it here?

An easy way to get this,

click on the main menu, then go to system - terminal - Konsole

enter “su -” enter your root pasword, then “fdisk -l” as above

copy and paste as normal, please paste between code tags.

Good first step. But, if you can’t access sda1 from grub (Windows drive) that OS is probably toast. Can you specify how you configged them?
ie:
sda1 Windows
sda2 Extended
sda3 ?
sda4 ?
sda5 ?
sda6 ?
sda7 ?
sda8 ?
sda9 ? (if not using sda3 or sda4
sda10 ? (if not using sda3 or sda4

So, then… Is my windows boot screwed up? I know that’s like asking what color my laptop is, but I was entering “boot /dev/sda1” and it didn’t boot.

Yep I would presume it’s screwed.

If it is, am I going to have to use fixboot/fixmbr, get windblows working, then re-do all this formatting?

I am assuming you completed the partitioning stage in full. If this is the case, you can just go ahead and install Windows into C: (sda1) normally and if it complains about other partitions not being formatted you can ignore this until your ready. The windows install will replace the boot all by itself during the install. After windows is installed you can then proceed with Linux install which will replace the mbr & grub-loader.

Heh, I’m using reiserfs for its speed, on my friend’s recommendation. Any idea how long it’s going to take to format this 600GB of space? It’s been sitting at the repair toolbox screen with the “working” cursor showing for about an hour now, after I hit apply.

Format time varies based on the drive.

I feel is’s worth investigating the initial problem here, perhaps?

to clarify this,

I feel is’s worth investigating the initial problem here, perhaps?

which is intended for the OP,
We don’t know your partitioning, Where is the extended primary?
what is on the other primaries? What linux partitions are still setup through your windows partitioning?
fdisk output and a description of what is where will help here.

Its possible TestDisk may help, for example.

All right. Thanks for the help.

Initial setup was:

sda1 XP pro (created by xp)
750gb unpartitioned space.

Then I used opensuse install to make it:
sda1 XP
sda2 extended partition
sda3 /
sda4 /home
sda5 linux swap

leaving 660gb unpartitioned space.

Then I wanted to move some data around, used XP to create a new partition, which screwed up sda2, sda3, and sda4.

XP required a reboot (diskmgr crashed).
Reboot left me at grub.
I couldn’t find/access any drives. Ran opensuse rescue disc and saw partitions sda1, sda2, and sda5 listed.
rescue disc found no valid linux partitions.

I’m still not sure what the command is to load XP. If it’s boot /dev/sda1, then something is wrong with my xp boot.

I rebuilt all my partitions last night (still sitting at the repair toolbox with a working cursor and no HD activity light).
I built it as:

Everything but the xp partition is blank. I have a separate 150gb as sdb1 with data on it.

sda1 XP (left intact)
sda2 extended
sda3 Loader reiser
sda4 / reiser
sda5 home reiser
sda6 200gb ext2fs
sda7 300gb ext2fs (so I can load it in windows. I can always format individual partitions later.)

I’m heading out to school in a little while. Plan is to let it run and see if it’s finished when I get back.

At this point it’s a clean linux install and I don’t mind nuking it. The xp I really don’t want to screw with.
I’ll try grub again, see if xp will load. I doubt it will. If not, I’ll runfixmbr, then reinstall opensuse.

By the way, I don’t love the KDE gui, can I easily switch to gnome if I install w/kde to match my friend, or is that complex?

thanks

By the way, I don’t love the KDE gui, can I easily switch to gnome if I install w/kde to match my friend, or is that complex?

that is very simple.

You are over the time I would call remotely reasonable for the format you suggest.

Any disk activity?

If you don’t know how to give fdisk output, ask!

Another point reiserfs is ok but I have found ext4 much faster on the same hardware.

Dvhenry, thankee.
Okay, how do I give proper fdisk output?
I normally try to read up myself and not ask in new threads for common things. (like telling myself to rtfm). Asking is better than doing it wrongly though.

Thanks for the heads up on the filesystems, gogal. I should look into them more.
Friends are great for suggestions, but decisions should be made yourself.

Why doesn’t the opensuse install offer an option to use ntfs? I read a blurb that mounting and editing an ntfs partition can damage it, which just seems strange. Is ntfs proprietary microsoft?

Another thought - If windows happens to automatically run chkdsk at some point, is that going to cause similar problems with the mbr? I think chkdsk is limited to partition-by-partition scanning.

  1. You can tell the installer to mount any NTFS partitions somewhere in the Linux file system (your choice). Maybe /windowsc. This will mount the file system to the root in a directory called windowsc. Use the advanced/expert mode to fine tun the partitioning and mounting. But be sure you don’t chose to format it.

Linux will not run on a NTFS file system. MS does not provide the needed properties. But you can read and write to a NTFS.

  1. CHKDSK should not mess with the MBR. Also the Windows knows nothing about any thing else but Windows stuff. So don’t use Windows utilities on Linux partitions. :stuck_out_tongue:

Windows installer, checks the mbr and writes the boot code part of the mbr which wipes out what other OS’s might have defined there. Windows disk management reads and writes the partition table part of the mbr. While it can see it’s partitions, other OS partitions, and any unused space, It can only modify it’s own or unused space.
Scandisk and chkdisk only read the partition table for valid Windows OS partitions and check them.
NTFS, NFS, FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 M$ claims are proprietary works so other OS’s can read and write to them but are not allowed to use as their own filesystems but this isn’t an issue really since Linux has filesystems that are far more powerful and relyable then those by M$.

Okay, how do I give proper fdisk output?

Have you tried the suggestion in post #9

An easy way to get this,

click on the main menu, then go to system - terminal - Konsole

enter “su -” enter your root pasword, then “fdisk -l” as above

copy and paste as normal, please paste between code tags.

Weather or not what I asked for helps, It is good to know how to provide info from the command line for the future.

If this does not work I will provide a link to a better explanation (once I find it).

Code tags just make it easier to read.