Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 21:00:14 -0800 (PST) From: Robert Clark <robertc@rio.pii.com> To: zhihuizhang <bf20761@binghamton.edu> Cc: Bill Hamilton <billh@finsco.com>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Partition with Partition Magic Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.990210201631.4005E-100000@rio.pii.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.SOL.L3.93.990210152311.9110D-100000@bingsun1>
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I seem to remember running into something like this before. I changed the size of a dos/win partition. In doing so, I went from one fat size to another. Ie from fat32 to fat16. Good ol partition magic left a shim in place to handle things. To me that felt like the surgeon leaving a scalpel in after the surgery was over. I cried foul, used ghost to back up the data on the disk, wiped the partition table clean, and started from scratch. (And put PM on my sh*tlist.) What reasons could there be for an unexplaned partition at the beginning of the disk? Is it a COMPAQ system? If so is it a "BIOS" partition? Is it a diagnostic partition? (If it is, juggle the entries, and be ready to put it back when you need it.) Maybe its EZ-Drive or something similar? Is DOS picky about where it puts its first cylinder?? (The following is for peer review. Please correct me where I'm wrong.) There is absolutely *nothing* magic about the partition table. There aren't four little registers for the values to go in, its just a convention. (A PC convention?) I had a laptop for quite a while with one partition reserved, and I just moved it out of the way. In other words, I used a DOS based partition table editor, saved a copy of the partition table, removed the diagnostic partition, and then moved the rest of the entries up one. IE: 1. Save a copy of the partition table to somewhere safe, like a floppy. 2. Save a copy of the partition table editor to the floppy. 3. Make sure you've done 1&2. 4. Move partition entry 2 to entry 1. 5. Move partition entry 3 to entry 2. 6. Move partition entry 4 to entry 3. 7. Blank partition entry 4. Now, you have a spot to put another entry. Need more than 4 entries on one disk? Something Like: Dos/W95 NT4 FreeBSD Linux BeOS One option is to setup as normal: Dos6.22/W95 (not fat32) NT4 (use some space on the W95 area + NTFS) FreeBSD Boot DOS, Save a copy of the partition table; call it FreeBSD.par Temporarily grow the NT partition to include the FreeBSD area. Zero out the FreeBSD partition entry. Install Linux in an area on the disk after the FreeBSD area. (The NT area acts as a placeholder.) Boot DOS, Reduce the NT partition to its correct size. Save a copy of the partition table on W95 partition; call it Linux.par Temporarily grow the NT partition to include the Linux area as well. Zero out the Linux partition entry. Install BeOS in an area on the disk after the Linux area. (The NT area acts as a placeholder.) Boot DOS, Reduce the NT partition to its correct size. Save a copy of the partition table on the W95 partition; call it BeOS.par Ok now what? Leave the DOS/W95/NT4 boot loader alone. Use the config.sys options of DOS to run the non flavored fdisk utility and load the partition table back on depending on which OS you want to run. Once the partition is loaded, run FBSDBOOT or its equivalent to bring the kernel of your choice up. Before anyone begins larting me, I just wanted to make the point that its not absolutely necessary to spring for "system commander" if you don't mind getting a little grubby. [RC] On Wed, 10 Feb 1999, zhihuizhang wrote: > > > > When Partition Magic lists the partitions out, the extended shows on a > > line by itself. But of course, that is not correct. You have 7 > > partitions inside the extended. You need to rearrange these so that the > > free one is at the end or the beginning and then shrink the extended, > > leaving the free space as a primary partition. Don't format it, since > > the program only does MS type formats. If you do, you just have to > > select "delete" on it before FreeBSD will deal with it. Well, maybe not, > > but it would be less confusing in fdisk to just see it as free space. I > > don't know what version of PM you have, but in mine you cannot move or > > resize a Linux partition. Maybe in the latest version you can. But if > > the free one is at the end already, I guess you're ok. Just start by > > deleting that fat partition and shrink the extended. > > > > I am using Partition Magic 3.02 and I have free space as a primary > partition. The PC already has Linux, DOS 6, and Windows NT installed. > The pqmagict.exe shows there are three primary partitions available and > their sizes are 31.3MB, 4769.2MB, and 1349.2MB respectively. The first > two are also shown in the DOS fdisk command. The second primary partition > contains 7 subpartition: 4 labeled as Linux Ext2, 2 labeled as Linux swap, > and 1 labeled as NTFS (I guess this is for Windows NT). > > I insert CD-ROM and reboot from it. At the FDISK screen, I see four > entries: > > offset size end name ptype desc subtype > 0 63 62 - 6 unused > 63 64197 64259 wd0s1 2 fat 4 <-- DOS > 64260 9767520 9831779 wd0s2 4 extended 5 <-- extended primary > 9831780 2363180 12594959 wd0s3 3 freebsd 165 CA > > My question is: How come FreeBSD regard the first entry as unused? Why > Partition Magic does not show this entry (It only shows the last three, > wd0s1-wd0s3)? Why there are FOUR entries instead of THREE entries (each > represent a primary partition)? Where does the extra entry (first one) > come from? > > By the way, I installed FreeBSD on another PC successfully and devoted ALL > disk space to FreeBSD on that machine. Still, I got the mysterious first > entry labeled as unused. I read in an installation tutorial that it is > for boot sectors. But for this PC, where can we find those 62 sectors > that seems to be required by FreeBSD? > > Maybe I have to install FreeBSD FIRST (before other OSs) to make sure > FreeBSD can use the first 62 sectors. I try to find the start sector of > the DOS partition to see if there is any conflict, but Partition Magic has > no such information for the first active DOS partition (I can get similar > information on other partitions). > > Anyway, I install FreeBSD on the last partition "successfully" and reboot. > > The System Commander does find the FreeBSD partition. But when I try to > boot from it. It says "read error" and the system halts. > > Any idea? Thanks for you help. > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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