Re: [newbie] large hard disk
That is why Linux-Mandrake developed GRUB, it does not have the problem with 1024 cylinders Uhm...Linux-Mandrake didn't develop GRUB...it's a GNU program. Current versions of LILO don't care abut 1024 cylinders either. All this presumes that the BIOS is recent enough to deal with large drives. Cheers --- Larry
Re: [newbie] large hard disk
Joe, See all of my earlier discussions on "shim" programs. A lot in the last month, for some reason. Use shim programs ONLY if you MUST. Being that you say your motherboard is only two years old I would expect it to support LBA drives; are you ABSOLUTELY sure that you have to use the bios overlay ( "shim" or disc manager program) to see the full capacity of the drive? If not, or to test it, reinstall the shim to the hard drive to undo the mbr corruption you have now, then "uninstall" it. Check that CMOS is set to hard drive "auto" for both configuration and mode. Fdisk should now function normally and see the entire drive capacity. If so you can go ahead with a normal installation. The following discussion is assuming that you must use a disk manager program: Your problem arises because the Linux install put the Lilo (or grub) bootloader in the mbr area. This is where the disk manager (shim, bios overlay) lives, thus the shim program is messed up and this in turn is causing all of the disc problems. The fix is that you must reinstall the shim onto the hard drive. Since you say that the floppy with the shim software shows that everything is still there, Windon't and Linux may both be intact, but with unknown damage from trying to fdisk /or format while experimenting. The discrepancy where fdisk is showing only 8GB is because it can't access the shim information, it cannot see the whole drive; this is not a significant problem. Primary partitions must be created by the shim program, not by fdisk, either DOS or Linux, and not by Partition Magic. The Linux install may be able to then assign and divide up an empty available partition to itself, or you may have to hand-create all Linux partitions before you begin the Linux install. Read the information about the shim that is with the program (a leaflette or a readme file); it will probably say to press spacebar when the EZ BIOS message is displayed to boot from a floppy. In this way you can access the floppy drive and boot Linux from the boot disc you make when you install Linux Mandrake. Forget conventional dual-booting. Begin your Linux Mandrake install by using the boot from floppy procedure that the shim requires (not doing so may cause the Linux install not to see the Windon't partition, overwriting it: Linux doesn't see the shim's partition information and sees the drive as empty, handling the whole drive itself.). Do not do an automatic install. Write Lilo (or grub) on the beginning of the partition containing Linux, NOT TO THE MBR. There is an option near the end of the install for this that you will see when you reinstall. This should allow you to complete your Linux install and have it co-exist with a Windon't installation on this drive. Though I've worked with shim programs as a computer technician, I have not used them with Linux, thus I'm not sure about your having to make all partitions from the shim software before beginning the Linux install. -Gary- In a message dated 10/16/2000 6:37:46 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: A few months ago I bought a Maxtor Diamondmax 40 gig hard drive. I installed it with Windows 98 using the included Maxblast Plus software floppy. The software included a BIOS overlay called EZ BIOS. Everything installed correctly and gave me two 20 gig partitions labeled D: and E: Whenever I booted up I saw the words EZ BIOS on the screen after the Compaq startup logo disappeared. (I have a Compaq Presario 4834 about 2 years old). When I set up a dual boot with Linux, I put Linux on the Maxtor 40 gig drive. I never did check to see how many gigs I was actually getting but the install seemed to indicate I had 40 gigs available. Since then I've had to remove Linux temporarily. I repartitioned and reformatted the drive using DOD fdisk, but fdisk tells me I only have 8 gigs available on that drive. I no longer see the EZ BIOS at boot. When I try to reformat with the Maxblast floppy it seems to partition the drive into two 20 gig non-dos partitions. Fdisk shows those two non-dos partitions but still says I have only 8 gigs available. If I try to reformat the two partitions into DOS partitions, it will only let me have the 8 gigs. Any ideas? Thank you to the experts out there. Joe
Re: [newbie] large hard disk
well for one dos fdisk is limited your bios settings will tell it something it cant comprehend, remember how we mention lilo only able to detect so many cylanders well in this case dos has the same limitations, my mom had the same problem she bought a 20 gig hard drive and for some reason her computer only registered it as a 2 gig hard drive, this had allot to do with the bios settings, your ez bios is merely a program that has to continuley lie to dos however it apears not compatible with linux
Re: [newbie] large hard disk
DOS will not see anything past the 1028 cylinder limit--approximately 7.8GB (sually rounded by DOS to 8GB). You do not need the "EZ-BIOS" app. to run properly. If you are only installing linux, then scrap the DOS utilities, and only use the installer (I'm assuming Mandrake). Use "expert mode" and when it gets to the partitioning sections, make the following partitions: /boot16MB to 50MB depending on how many versions of Linux or kernels you plan to run. swap (twice your RAM) /1GB or 2GB or more (/usr 1GB or 2GB if you want to--not necessary.) /homeThe rest or sized as you wish. When the BIOS boots, it will see only the /boot partition and be happy. The linux kernel will load and see everything. If you want to dual boot, stick windows in first--it doesn't like living with another OS, unless the install thinks it's going to be the only one there. If you want to partition 20GB for windows, and 20GB for linux, use the MaxBlast diskette, but only install on one partition.. you can delete and re-allocate the second 20GB of space during the "expert" install of MDK. --Greg - Original Message - From: "Joseph Bourque" [EMAIL PROTECTED] A few months ago I bought a Maxtor Diamondmax 40 gig hard drive. I installed it with Windows 98 using the included Maxblast Plus software floppy. The software included a BIOS overlay called EZ BIOS. Everything installed correctly and gave me two 20 gig partitions labeled D: and E: Whenever I booted up I saw the words EZ BIOS on the screen after the Compaq startup logo disappeared. (I have a Compaq Presario 4834 about 2 years old). When I set up a dual boot with Linux, I put Linux on the Maxtor 40 gig drive. I never did check to see how many gigs I was actually getting but the install seemed to indicate I had 40 gigs available. Since then I've had to remove Linux temporarily. I repartitioned and reformatted the drive using DOD fdisk, but fdisk tells me I only have 8 gigs available on that drive. I no longer see the EZ BIOS at boot. When I try to reformat with the Maxblast floppy it seems to partition the drive into two 20 gig non-dos partitions. Fdisk shows those two non-dos partitions but still says I have only 8 gigs available. If I try to reformat the two partitions into DOS partitions, it will only let me have the 8 gigs. Any ideas? Thank you to the experts out there. Joe __ Vous avez un site perso ? 2 millions de francs à gagner sur i(france) ! Webmasters : ZE CONCOURS ! http://www.ifrance.com/_reloc/concours.emailif
Re: [newbie] large hard disk
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: well for one dos fdisk is limited your bios settings will tell it something it cant comprehend, remember how we mention lilo only able to detect so many cylanders well in this case dos has the same limitations, my mom had the same That is why Linux-Mandrake developed GRUB, it does not have the problem with 1024 cylinders problem she bought a 20 gig hard drive and for some reason her computer only registered it as a 2 gig hard drive, this had allot to do with the bios settings, your ez bios is merely a program that has to continuley lie to dos however it apears not compatible with linux
Re: [newbie] large hard disk
Dennis Veatch wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: well for one dos fdisk is limited your bios settings will tell it something it cant comprehend, remember how we mention lilo only able to detect so many cylanders well in this case dos has the same limitations, my mom had the same That is why Linux-Mandrake developed GRUB, it does not have the problem with 1024 cylinders problem she bought a 20 gig hard drive and for some reason her computer only registered it as a 2 gig hard drive, this had allot to do with the bios settings, your ez bios is merely a program that has to continuley lie to dos however it apears not compatible with linux I was in error, Linux-Mandrake did not devlope GRUB, GRand Unified Bootloader, which was originally designed and implemented by Erich Stefan Boleyn. The rest of my statement is correct.
