Need some things clarified with Mandrake 8.2 (Newbie stuff)

phobos

Right,

I just put in a brand spanking new 40GB maxtor in to my box the other day, and instead of taking the traditional Microsoft steps of getting an up and running system, I decided twas time to install Linux. I booted the machine from the install CDs, and kickstarted the installation. On the screen where you set up the partitions I selected the auto mode (where it automatically calculates how much space is to be allocated to '/', '/home' and the swap disk). It made the majourity of the disk /home, so I resized that partition because I intended to dual boot windows too. So I resized /home, and created a 15GB FAT32 partition at the end of the disk.

Now I have linux installed perfectly on my system, and I love it (apart from the fact I can't get my modem working ). I now want to install windows, so I can play my games when the exams are over. How the hell do I go about installing windows now. Things I have tried so far, such as:

Booting from a floppy in to DOS, and hoped that I would see a C: drive. But of course all I get is an "invalid drive spec". I can't understand this because Linux, says that the FAT32 partition exists and it's formatted. I can even write to it from within Linux. I am getting all this information from the Mandrake Control Center (GUI utility). Since I don't have a win'98SE boot floppy (typical :rolleyes: ), I started the machine up from an old '95 one instead. But when I ran fdisk, it told me 2 partitions existed. One Non-DOS, and one DOS-Ext. For the complete disk size it gives me a negative value in MBs. So I instantly thought that this version of FDISK doesn't support FAT32, or large disks.

So what do I do in order to get Win98 up and running. BTW I want Win98 and not 2k. I'm not bothered about what version of windows I have. I have devices such as PDAs etc, that all work fine under 98 so I will be happy with that. Also if someone could fill me in on why I cant see the FAT32 partition when I boot from a DOS floppy.

advTHANKSance

;-phobos-)

seamus

Originally posted by phobos
and created a 15GB FAT32 partition at the end of the disk.

There's your problem right there. Windows likes to be on the first partition of the first HDD (damn Bill Gates). Redo it.

Boot into Linux and make a windows partition at the start of the drive.
Then run windows install, and don't worry if it partitions both as FAT32.
Then run Linux install, and stick it at the end of the drive.

Badabing badaboom.

I haven't met anyone who hasn't made this mistake the very first time.

phobos

You see kids, isn't it easy when you know how

Cheers seamus, That sounds like MS alright (fuppin mukkets).

;-phobos-)

flamegrill

I beg to differ seamus, but that is a whole load of tripe :P

Windows doesnt give a crap where it is on the disk, the problem perhaps could be that the linux app that formatted it may not have done it the way windows likes it. Fat32 read/write in linux is still at the experimental stage. What i'd do is format it using windows format. You can boot of the windows 98 disk you know and run the version of fdisk that comes with it.

But i would however install windows first, be it on any partition you want. but it must be made Primary, and windows only likes one primary partition per disk. To prove also that windows doesnt need to be on the first partition, my setup here right now has /dev/hda1 as linux and windows on /dev/hda3.

In closing, i would recomend you use windows apps to make windows compatible partition and use linux/unix apps to make unix/linux partitions. Format them with similar software for each os, in windows the format command and in linux use /sbin/mkfs.ext2 to make an ext2 filesystem .

As usual anymore questions are welcome,

Regards,

Paul

ps seamus, check before you post incorrect information again please.

seamus

Originally posted by flamegrill
ps seamus, check before you post incorrect information again please.

The information I had supplied is what several websites (no links offhand) have told me, plus is based on my experience of other people's linux installs - I have never seen anyone able to install Windows 98 on any other partition than the first one. Of course I have never seen anyone install anything other than RH, and due to my newbieness and your vast experience, I stand corrected.

tribble

Windows doesnt give a crap where it is on the disk

eerm... bollo><!

Windows (95, 98, 2000) HAS to reside on the first 8 gig of the harddisk. (If not it may not find the system files)
http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-2.html

and scroll down to section2.8 - (section for each specific OS)



b

tribble

OS
Boot Partition Type: Primary or Logical
Supported Partition Types
Boot Code Boundary
Minimum Space Required

DOS 6.22 and earlier
Primary
FAT
2GB
8MB

Windows 95 OSR2
Primary
FAT or FAT32
8GB
90MB

Windows 98
Primary
FAT or FAT32
>8GB
175MB

Windows Me
Primary
FAT or FAT32
>8GB
295MB

Windows 2000
Primary
FAT, FAT32 or NTFS
>8GB
1GB

Red Hat Linux 7.1 (LILO)
Either
Linux Ext2
8GB
1GB

OS/2
Either
FAT or HPFS
4GB
110MB


http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:poBgVwhvOWMC:www.uclan.ac.uk/other/iss/faqtips/secondop/secondop+2000+boot-code+boundary&hl=en

b

ps - so there:p

flamegrill

We are talking about partition placement not where the boot code has to be. Seamus said that windows has to be placed on the first partition on the disk, this information was incorrect. I corrected it.

The reason for the limitations in windows is because at one stage in Bios manufacturing, the bios could only read boot code before the 1024 cylinder mark on any device. This has changed since then, but obviously the code for windows has not. Lilo on the other hand and Grub can now boot from the 1024 cylinder mark and beyond.

Tribble if what you have to say is not helpful or is not a vaild point then i would appreciate if you didnt comment at all.

Your information was correct but was slightly out of context.

Regards,

Paul

phobos

But i would however install windows first, be it on any partition you want

You see after I had installed Mandrake, I read some of the documentation that came along with it, and it told me that if I wanted to dual boot Win+Linux, I should have installed Windows first. Eh.....Too late

Flamegrill, you know my situation (see initial post if not). What are the steps (I mean step-by-step), I need to do to get Windows on the machine, and the two dual booting. I have been told so many things by different people that don't make sense to me. Somebody told me to, delete the partition information in Linux and setup 2 FAT32 partitions. As far as I'm concerned Linux would stop dead if I tried that, and probably wouldnt' let me. Also As far as I'm concerned, that partitioning software that comes with the Mandrake install does a sh1te job of setting up FAT partitions. This is my first real Linux distro, and I'm happy with it, but I want windows back too.

;-phobos-)

flamegrill

phobos:

For newbies like yourself it always best to install windows first. the reason being is that windows likes to overwrite the boot sector to suit itself. So what you should do first is:

1. Boot from a windows 98 boot disk or cdrom.
2. Use Fdisk to partition the Disk
3. Install windows
Once you have windows installed and running smoothly proceed to step 4.
4. Boot from your mandrake CD.
5. Use its nice fancy GUI install
Once Linux sees that windows is installed it will setup grub or lilo so as it will allow u to dual boot it.

On the other hand if u want to work with what you have already, then do the following:

*note* this is only relevant if the first partition is less than 8GB as the boot code for windows wont work if its beyond that point.

1. Make a linux boot disk - im not sure about mandrake, sorry i dont use it, but i think there will be an option somewhere on ur X windows menu.
2. Same as part 1 above
3. Same as part 2 above + delete any fat32 partition that linux created. Then create a primary windows partition using the rest of the disk space. if however the linux partition is a primary partiton windows fdisk wont allow u to create a new primary one, so secondary will do.
4. Reboot and boot again from the windows cd or boot disk and format the newly created windows partition.
5. Then proceed to install windows.
At this stage windows will probably have rode ur mbr and put its own boot loader in there, no matter as u can use the linux boot disk to boot ur mandrake system. alternatively u may be able to boot the system from the mandrake install cd
6. Once the linux system is booted into u are going to have to edit the lilo.conf file in /etc/. Use pico as its simple to use, unless u know how to use Vi

a simple /etc/lilo.conf may look like this

timeout=10
boot=/dev/hda2
root=/dev/hda2
read-only
append="idebus=66"
# default linux kernel (2.4.18)
image=/boot/vmlinuz
        label=linux
# backup 2.2.19 linux kernel
image=/boot/vmlinuz.old
        label=safe
        optional
# here follows a dos setup
other = /dev/hda4   # your dos partition, if any
       label = dos       # or any non-fancy name

this example should be good enough for you to get your system back on track .

i think one of these routes should help you get to where you are going.

Note: all info direct from memory and maybe slightly off

Regards,

Paul

phobos

Right now my disk has a corrupt file system and no OS, lol

Since the Win98 CD doesn't have Fdisk on it, to use, I had to get a friend of mine to make a boot floppy. I booted from the floppy, and saw that there was two visible partitions to Fdisk. I removed non DOS partition, and all went well there. I then went to remove the EXT DOS partition, it said it couldn't remove it while it contained logical drives. I then went to list the logical drives, and stupid Fdisk told me that there were no logical drives (contradicting what it said a few mins earlier). So what I am guessing is that there is logical drives that only linux can see, and fdisk can't, yet fdisk knows they are there, because it won;t let me remove the Extended DOS partition.

Anyway this extended DOS partition apparently takes up 91% of my disk. Since I could do nothing else, I went ahead, and created a primary DOS partition, so I could install windows. When it was finished it had created another partition which it said was 79% of my disk. At this point I knew things were going pear shaped, but thought fdisk was getting the values wrong. Since it pretty much fukked up everything else I asked it to do. When that new partition was created, I formatted it using format to FAT32. I then proceeded to install windows, and after the blue screen scandisk check, it just halted. Do you know why?, because fukking fdisk, created a new partition and overlapped the old one. This is completely enraged me, and has just proven that MS utilities are not safe to use in conjunction with non MS products.
I am well pi$$ed off :mad:

Right what I propose to do, is a low level format (write zeros to the disk), using some tool which I would like to get offline. I have used zeros tools before, but hear there are ones available on the Maxtor web site, specifically for maxtor drives. I had a look for these and wonder can anybody post a link to a tool that would work on my drive, and can run in a DOS environment, since the only OS I seem to be able to get up and running is DOS (from a boot disk).

What I propose to do

1. Get a zeros tool, and rewrite the disk, removing the corrupt partition info, so I can start from scratch
2. Fdisk the drive, creating a 20gig FAT32 partition (50% of the drive)
3. Install Windows
4. Then reboot the system and install mandrake
5. Have mandrake perform an automatic partition setup
6. Pray to fuk that the above steps work

Anyone think there is a chance this won't work, because I'm seriously getting sick and tired of this sh1te. As far as I'm concerned it's a simple task, and I'm finding the worst possible scenarios. Is it just me or did everyone else just install the bloody thing according the instructions (which IMO don't work), and get things working first time round. Take for example when someone tells me to use fdisk (I mean WTF do I do in Fdisk). Because as far as I'm concerned Fdisk is only useful if you are sticking to MS OSs, and just want to partition your drive. Not if you want to prepare it for linux, and definately if you want to repartition it, after getting rid of linux.

So this is my final plea to anyone out there that can help me

;-phobos-)

flamegrill

What you propose to do should work perfectly.

Go for it.

Regards,

Paul

phobos

Does anybody know where I can get a "write zeros to the disk" utility for a maxtor drive online. I need one badly. I had a look myself, and I can't seem to get anything useful.

advTHANKSance

;-phobos-)

Frank Grimes

www.bootdisk.com has some write zero utils. on it. I haven't used them so I can't endorse these products

Rew

Originally posted by flamegrill
What you propose to do should work perfectly.

Go for it.

Regards,

Paul

Max blast software from Maxtors own site??

i think...

phobos

My proposed plan (above) worked!. I went to Maxtor's site where they have many the utility for their drives, so I got myself a copy of their utility diskette (called MUD). It did a nifty job of my fu><ored drive, in about 2hours (using the tool MAXLLF.exe). After that I could create my FAT32 partition, install windows, install linux, ride off in to the sun set :cool:

Now my next question regards, getting my modem to work under Linux. I noticed when installing mandrake this time, that when it went to detect/configure communication devices (it only detected my ethernet card, and not my modem). I've been made aware of linmodem and all that, but need some more info off de peoples with experience.

;-phobos-)