Hello! I'm new here.

I need a little help with partitioning, two OS's etc. basic stuff. Please read it through.

I just bought a new Seagate 7200.10 500GB SATA-II hard drive. My two older Seagate Barracuda IDE hard drives (80GB and 120 GB) had been running out of space for some time now.

I'm planning to install both Linux (Ubuntu 7.04) and Windows Vista on the new HDD. I've partitioned a hard drive and installed Windows XP before, but I haven't installed or ever used Linux.

I read some stuff about partitioning and linux and SATA-II hard drives from the net, and ran to the Radified Partitioning Strategies, which was good info about how to plan your partitions. There's still some things I need answers to, and I'd like a few opinions on what I plan to do.

Firstly, this is how I plan to partition my new drive so far:

1st partition: Linux partition, 10 gb
2nd partition: Linux swap, 1-2 gb
3rd partition: Windows partition, 20-25gb
4th partition: Games etc. large programs, ~90gb (don't know how much of that will actually be ever used, but it doesn't hurt to have extra space there)
5th partition: Stuff, 70gb (random stuff that doesn't fit the other categories)
6th partition: Media files, ~220gb
7th partition: Downloads, 80gb

+ the older 120GB Seagate as a backup drive (I plan to learn to use Norton Ghost too)

Total ~620gb

So.. the questions.
What is the correct order for all this - I mean, do I first partition the new HDD, then move there all the files I want to keep from the older drives (but leave Linux and Windows partitions untouched), then install Linux and then Windows, or should I install Windows first? I guess I'm going to have to move there all the files I want to keep BEFORE installing windows or linux... because I don't want it to get difficult moving files from these HDD's to the new one while having an OS installed in both drives.
What do you suggest I do?

Also, I've downloaded the Ubuntu 7.04, and apparently I have to burn it to CD. That I know how to do, but once I install the linux, does the installation automatically create the proper file system to the partition I want to install it in? Is it possible to partition the whole drive with the Ubuntu 7.04 installation thing, or do I have to do that in advance from this Windows?

I read in the partition strategy guide that Linux doesn't cooperate well with other partitions that are NTFS. But I reckon NTFS is better than FAT32, so naturally, I'd like all my other partitions besides Linux to be NTFS. Is there really a problem with using Linux and NTFS file system in other partitions? If there is, what do I actually lose if I decide to use FAT32?

Finally, is there anything I should know about having both a SATA-II drive and an IDE drive installed? With two IDE drives the other one is master and the other slave, but what about one SATA-II and one IDE?

Thanks in advance. :)

Lots of questions in there, so I'll tackle as many as I can remember...

First and most importantly, you should install Windows first, then Linux.  Linux is good at helping you keep both operating systems.  Windows has a nasty habit of squashing other OS installations.  It doesn't matter if you copy the rest of your data over before or after.

Next I wanted to mention the swap partition.  Most people try to put it at the very beginning of the disk because that is the fastest part.  1GB should be plenty and even less would be ok.  Linux is good with memory usage - I push my Linux computer pretty hard and it almost never uses swap space.  In fact, I would skip on the Linux swap space and let Windows use it for the pagefile.

The Ubuntu installation can do all your partitioning if you want it to.  I recommend you use ext3 filesystem for your Linux drive.  RiserFS is slightly faster but the project is dieing.  Linux recently gained the ability to read and write to NTFS drives, but I don't think its built into the default install yet.  I'm sure I could help you get it working.  The difference between FAT32 and NTFS is that NTFS is less prone to fragmentation and has a lot more security features.  You want to use NTFS for sure on your Windows partition, but its up to you if you want to use FAT32 on the data partitions or try to get NTFS working in Linux.  It shouldn't be hard, but it'll take a little effort.

Having a SATA drive and an IDE drive can cause some strange behavior in older computers that assume the IDE drive is the master drive.  For a short time, BIOS was written to boot from IDE even if the SATA drive was where your OS was.  You might have to play around with it a little.  If your computer is new within the last year or so, it probably won't be an issue at all.

Based on some of your questions, I'm guessing that you haven't read the Linux guide.  I recommend it before you install Linux.  It has some information on partitioning in there, as well as some basic stuff to help you get around the OS once its installed.  Ubuntu is really easy, but it helps to have all the info you can get.  I haven't had much feedback on the guide yet, so if you see anything that could be improved or have any questions, please let me know.

http://guides.radified.com/magoo/guides/linux/linux_introduction.html

I don't have any experience with Linux, so I can't help you on any of those questions.

However, I do have some experience with Vista now. I would recommend at least 25GB for Vista. That's what I'm using now on a 36GB Raptor drive. I've got a dual-boot setup there for XP and Vista b/c a lot of my older Windows 2000 era software isn't compatible with Vista (kinda a downer really :().

Anyhow, 20GB probably won't be enough if you have any large software applications -- Office, Acrobat, and Photoshop for example take up about 2GB without caching the installer files! So since you've got such a big drive, you'll probably want to go with a little bit larger partition for Windows just to be safe.

A final note, if you plan to resize partitions at a later date, Partition Magic 8 isn't compatible with Windows Vista... There might be a newer version, but I know 8.0 isn't compatible.

If you need to resize the partitions, GParted can be run from a LiveCD, so its compatible with any OS.  It's includes support for FAT32 and NTFS, as well as many other file systems.  It's GPL software, available for free download on sourceforge:

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

Get it on a multiboot CD combined with Clonzilla here:

http://clonezilla.sourceforge.net/gparted-clonezilla/

Thanks for the replies.

I guess there's no point in partitioning from the Linux install CD, since I'm going to install Windows first anyway. I guess I'll have to read a guide about FDisk too. There's one here at radified.com I think..

I'll skip the linux swap partition then, if it really isn't needed. I only have a gig of 400MHz DDR though, and I guess 2 gigs is the standard nowadays, preferably DDR2. Do you think I'll manage with that?
I don't know how to make Windows use a partition as a pagefile, but that's probably nothing complicated, not that complicated would discourage me :P.

I think I'll try to make Linux work with writing to NTFS - after I've read some more on the subject somewhere to get a picture how it's done etc. And I'll read your guide too Mr. Magoo, and look if there's something there I want to comment or ask about.

You'll be fine with 1GB of memory in Linux.  Windows will need a pagefile, but it will create one automatically.  Moving it to its own partition isn't difficult but also isn't entirely necessary.

Ok. I'm pretty close to actually beginning formatting, partitioning, moving files and installing operating systems - I think. There's still some things I need to ask. The order in which I do everything isn't entirely clear to me.

Currently I have two hard disks (all NTFS):

120 GB - Ultra ATA/100 as primary master (Location 0: primary ATA channel)
C: Windows     [Primary partition]
F: Games     [Logical DOS drive in Extended partition]
E: Stuff     [Logical DOS drive in Extended partition]

80 GB - Ultra ATA/100 as primary slave (Location 1: primary ATA channel)
D: Media     [Logical DOS drive in Extended partition OR Primary partition ; unsure]
G: Downloads     [Logical DOS drive in Extended partition]

EDIT: I just checked into Disk Management in WXP, and it says in the Status details that D: Media is "active", and C: is "system". Isn't only the system folder supposed to be active, or does D: being active mean that it's a Primary partition?

And then I have the new 500gb SATA-II hard disk.

First I want to know if it's possible to partition from the Windows Vista installation DVD.

Anyway, I have two different theories about the order in which the formatting/partitioning/installing is best done. In short, the first one is 'copy files from old hard disks to new one under the old WinXP', while the second one is 'get rid of WinXP, install Windows Vista to new drive, then copy files from old drives to new one'.
Here they are in full:

First theory

1. Connect SATA hard disk while other drives are still connected

2. Boot to FDISK floppy, and partition the SATA hard disk like this:
- One Primary partition for Windows Vista
- Four Logical DOS drives in an Extended partition
- Leave ~10gb unpartitioned for Linux

3. Format all partitions created to NTFS from WindowsXP DiskManagement

4. Copy everything I need from old drives to newly formatted SATA drive, leaving the partition where Vista will be installed empty
(at this point the drive letters will probably be messed up in Windows - I'm a bit confused)

5. Disconnect old drives, leave SATA drive connected

6. Boot to Vista installation DVD, install Vista to Primary partition (drive letter?), test Vista to see that everything works and the files I copied are there

7. Boot to Ubuntu installation CD, partition the unpartitioned ~10gb to one single partition (Primary or not...?) OR one partition for / and one for /home
(I'm still a bit unsure about this partitioning Linux part)

8. Format Linux partition(s) to Ext3

9. Install Ubuntu

10. See if the dual booting works as it should etc.

11. Connect the old 80gb hard disk, boot to FDISK, delete all partitions, disconnect the hard disk (will be unused as of then)

12. Connect the old 120gb hard disk, boot to FDISK, delete all partitions

13. Make one Logical DOS drive in an Extended partition, which takes up all space

14. Format it to NTFS with Vista (there's probably a DiskManagement tool too)


Second theory

1. Disconnect both old hard disks, and then connect the new SATA hard disk

2. Boot to FDISK floppy, and partition the SATA hard disk like this:
- One Primary partition for Windows Vista
- Four Logical DOS drives in an Extended partition
- Leave ~10gb unpartitioned for Linux

3. Boot to Windows Vista installation DVD

4. Format all SATA drives to NTFS and install Windows Vista to C:

5. Connect both old hard disks back

6. Boot to FDISK Floppy, and delete partition C: from the old 120gb hard disk

7. Boot to Windows Vista, and copy all needed files from the old drives to the new one

8. Boot back to FDISK Floppy, and delete all partitions from both hard disks

9. Create one Logical DOS drive in an Extended partition in the 120gb hard disk (the one Logical drive will use all 120gb space)

10. Disconnect 80gb hard drive (will be unused as of then)

11. Format 120gb hard drive into NTFS from Vista

12. Boot to Ubuntu installation CD, partition the unpartitioned ~10gb to one single partition (Primary or not...?) OR one partition for / and one for /home
(I'm still a bit unsure about this partitioning Linux part)

13. Format Linux partition(s) to ext3

14. Install Ubuntu

15. See if the dual booting works as it should

--

As you can see, I haven't got everything figured out, but I'll be looking here for replies.   :)

I doubt you'll be able to create a Linux filesystem from the Windows install DVD.  You can do partitioning and create the Windows filesystems from there.  Just leave a partition unformatted for Linux.

I'd suggest you do things in this order:

Install Windows
Copy your files over
Install Linux

That way, you can get everything set up before you install Linux and use the Microsoft partitioning tools you seem to be comfortable with.  Really, the only important thing is that you install Windows before Linux.  The files can be copied at any time.

Yeah, I get the big picture about the order in which everything has to be done, but the details are a bit unclear. I guess things will be clearer once I get to installing the hard drive. Actually I would've began already - unless I hadn't just found out that the net store I ordered the Seagate 7200.10, 8.5ms avg seek time, 5 year warranty HDD from, had sent me a different hard disk than the one I ordered. They sent me a Samsung Spinpoint T166, which is otherwise similar in its features except for lower price, 8.9ms avg seek time and only 3 year warranty.
It's probably just some human mistake on their part, but I can't call them and inform about it until monday, because the internet sales telephone is closed at weekends.  :(

Back again.

I finally got the new 500gb hard drive, now I have partitioned it, installed Vista and formatted the partitions and moved all files etc etc everything is working great. I haven't installed Linux yet though, but I'm sure it's a piece of cake, I have 15gb unallocated space for that in the HDD.

But there is one problem. I plan to use my old 120gb IDE HDD as a backup drive. After having moved all the neccessary files to the new drive, I deleted all partitions in the 120gb drive. Then I partitioned it as one big Logical DOS drive in Extended partition, and left it unformatted. Booting back to Vista, it wouldn't recognize it. I wonder why?
I booted back to UBCD and partitioned the 120gb HDD as one big Primary partition, and this time formatting it to Fat32 (it wouldn't allow NTFS, that's why I planned to do that in Vista anyway). It still wouldn't show in Vista. Anyway, whether it's formatted or not formatted shouldn't matter, right?
I partitioned the 120gb HDD with the same program I partitioned the big drive too - Super FDISK found on the Ultimate Boot CD version 4.1.1 (aka UBCD)

The 120gb HDD itself is set to Master, but boot priority is naturally on the SATA. It was set to master too when I moved the files, Vista recognized it alright and there were no problems.

Where is the problem? Neither of my old drives showed any problems coming up in Vista before... But after I partitioned the 120gb drive again, it won't show up.

EDIT:  I tried installing Ubuntu, but I didn't get very far. Upon booting to the LiveCD it went to the initial menu, and I chose "start or install Ubuntu". An error appeared on the beginning of a black screen:

Hdc: drive not ready for access

What does this mean? I think it's something to do with the DVD Drive rather than one of the hard drives...

Please help :/

vpleht


Quote:

Where is the problem? Neither of my old drives showed any problems coming up in Vista before... But after I partitioned the 120gb drive again, it won't show up.

There seems to be a strong correlation with the drive not showing up and the deleting and re-partitioning and re-formatting of the HDD using the UBCD Super FDISK program.


Quote:

I booted back to UBCD and partitioned the 120gb HDD as one big Primary partition, and this time formatting it to Fat32 (it wouldn't allow NTFS, that's why I planned to do that in Vista anyway).

It appears the the HDD *shows up* when booted to the UBCD environment--so it would seem that the HDD is being mounted by the system in the BIOS correctly.  So, have to think there's some type of issue with whether the UBCD Super FDISK program is functioning correctly as far as re-partitioning the old HDD and creating a Master Boot Record (MBR) and a Master Partition Table that Vista is willing to recognize!

At this point, I would try to use a program that wipes or zeros the boot region (the first 63 sectors of the HDD) of that old HDD so the drive is in a *virgin* state--has no memory of any former partitioning or formatting--this is how a drive is when it's purchased off the shelf.

This free program, when booted to DOS, has the needed function to wipe the boot region--be very careful that you know which HDD that the program is working with--some will disconnect all other HDD's so one can not make an error in choosing--or you want to mess around with the *list* feature until you are sure which HDD is which--the program requires a command line that specifies the correct HDD # when telling it what to do:  MBRWizard - The MBR utility you've been looking for!


Quote:

/Wipe=# Selecting an option of 1 will wipe the MBR clean, effectively removing all information from the first sector of the disk. An option of 2 will remove all information from the first (hidden) 63 sectors of the disk.

Once wiped, re-boot to Vista and it should be seen as a *new device*, and you should be advised that it needs to be prepared for use because it's in a *virgin* state.

Does Vista have the *Disk Management* function similar to WinXP?  I presume you have already been there and that's where the HDD is not showing up--as well as in Windows Explorer, etc.--correct?

There are some MBR tools and Hard Disk wiping tools on the Ultimate Boot CD too, I could see if any of them could do what you say I should do with MBRWizard. The tools in question are:

Hard Disk Wiping Tools:
Darik's Boot and Nuke
CopyWipe
Active@ KillDisk Free Edition
PC INSPECTOR e-maxx
HDDErase

MBR tools:
MBRtool
MBRWork

Have you heard any of those? I'd rather use one of them, if possible. If I absolutely have to use MBR Wizard, do I have to make a bootable disk or ...? Also, in the Super FDISK utility I used, there were some options regarding MBR too, I could check them out to see if they work.

Yes, Vista does have a disk management function similar to WinXP, except there's more things to do (I think) - you can i.e. shrink volumes. But I didn't operate the formatting from there, but directly by right clicking on the logical drive I wanted to format and clicking "format".. works all the same.

EDIT:
I went to UBCD, and started MBRWork. It showed the hard drive, and indicated that the first 63 sectors were in use. I chose the option to wipe the MBR, it gave a short warning that all partitions would be lost, I continued. After that, the tool showed that the HDD had nothing in the first 63 sectors.
Then I went to the Super FDISK tool again (btw there also was an option the clean the MBR) and partitioned the drive as one big Primary Partition, and left it unformatted.
Nothing would show up in Vista though :/

vpleht wrote on Jul 27^th, 2007 at 9:25am:

Nothing would show up in Vista though

Can you see the HD in Vista Disk Management?

Nope.

If you disconnect your IDE drive, can you boot into Ubuntu?  Maybe there is an issue with this drive at this point.

vpleht


Quote:

I chose the option to wipe the MBR, it gave a short warning that all partitions would be lost, I continued. After that, the tool showed that the HDD had nothing in the first 63 sectors. Then I went to the Super FDISK tool again (btw there also was an option the clean the MBR) and partitioned the drive as one big Primary Partition, and left it unformatted.   Nothing would show up in Vista though

Well, remember I was wondering if *super FDISK* was not creating a MBR that Vista could work with.

Try this--wipe the first 63 sectors again.  Then simply boot to Vista.  Does the HDD show up in Vista's Disk Management as being available to be partitioned and formatted for use as a *New Device* or *New HDD*?

NightOwl wrote on Jul 28^th, 2007 at 12:35am:

Try this--wipe the first 63 sectors again.

vpleht,

If you do this with MBRWork again, you need choices 3 and 4. I think you only used choice 4 last time.

http://members.shaw.ca/LeesPlace/mbrwork.htm

Thanks for the replies.

I think I'll try using MBRWork again, this time with choices 3 and 4, and booting to Vista straight after to see if it shows up as unpartitioned space. Are you sure that normally Vista (or WXP for that matter) does show unpartitioned hard drives in the Disk Management?

But IF Super FDISK has a problem creating an MBR that Vista won't recognize, then how come I managed to INSTALL Vista on a partition made with Super FDISK?

And if that is the case, should I try MBRWork's "Option 5: Install standard MBR code" ?

And one more question: Does it matter whether the IDE drive is partitioned as a Primary partition or a single Logical DOS drive? Does EVERY drive installed have to have at least one primary partition?

vpleht wrote on Jul 28^th, 2007 at 3:40am:

And if that is the case, should I try MBRWork's "Option 5: Install standard MBR code" ?

No. You want the first track to be zeroed for this test.

I haven't used Vista but with WinXP you would be asked to "initialize" the new HD on the first boot. This is Windows asking to write a MBR to the HD.


Quote:

And one more question: Does it matter whether the IDE drive is partitioned as a Primary partition or a single Logical DOS drive? Does EVERY drive installed have to have at least one primary partition?

Your second HD doesn't need to have a regular primary partition. It can be partitioned as a primary extended partition which can contain several logical volumes.

Brain


Quote:

If you do this with MBRWork again, you need choices 3 and 4.

Choice #3:  *3> Reset EMBR area to zero*.

I looked at the TeraByte's website,  What is an EMBR?, and unfortunately, their explanation of the *EMBR* is less than definitive, quite vague actually--I can not tell if that is actually in reference to the absolute sectors 1-62, or what...., the MBR is absolute sector 0 which includes the Master Partition Table information.

Do you know a reference or have you tested to see if the EMBR wiping is the first 1-62 sectors?

NightOwl,

I'll see if I can find a decent explanation of EMBR. I agree the TeraByte one is lacking in clarity.

I have tested MBRWork and "Reset EMBR area to zero" does zero sectors 1 to 62.

The BING userguide mentions EMBR 38 times and the nearest I can get to a sensible definition is "You can back up or restore the EMBR information (the entire first track) from any selected hard disk."

With MBRWork, "Reset EMBR area to zero" does leave sector 0 intact and the HD still boots.

I now use BING as a boot manager and I have "solid" BING code in my first 9 sectors and a few bytes of code in several other sectors in Track 0. So my "MBR" has been extended from just occupying sector 0 to occupying numerous sectors.

I got the IDE disk to show up in Vista!

First I tested MBRWork again, I tried to partition the disk with different configurations and tools, but nothing seemed to work.
But then I got an idea: first I would use DBan's Boot & Nuke (found on the UBCD) to wipe the disk clean of any past processing so that my PC would think it's brand new, and then I would partition the disk with Vista installation DVD to make sure Vista would recognize it. I did all that, but unfortunately I couldn't choose Vista installation DVD to make it anything other than a Primary partition. And yes, the disk still DID NOT show up in Vista.

The next thing was just a random idea, it wouldn't hurt to try, I thought. I changed the IDE disk's jumpers to "cable select" and assigned it to the gray slave cable. Everything worked fine!

So in the end, there was absolutely nothing wrong with any of the software used to partition the HDD or anything, just a matter of master or slave. I guess Vista doesn't like "primary master" IDE drives when booting off from a SATA drive.

But then there is the problem with Linux.. continued in another post.

I can't get Ubuntu to install from the CD. Disconnecting the IDE disk didn't change anything.
I'll describe the problem.

After I press the 'Start or Install Ubuntu' button, the CD begins to load something, and a screen with Ubuntu-text and a progress bar going back and forth stays on for about 30 seconds.

Then the screen goes black, a blinking _ appears in the upper left corner, and then this message appears in its place (without the >>>):

>>> [    160.838328] hdc: drive not ready for command

I think the series of numbers above is different every time, not sure though
Nothing would happen, and I can either reset the system, and the computer reboots, or press the shut down button, in which case more text appears (on at least one occasion):

>>> Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 1665
>>> Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 1666
>>> Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 1667
>>> Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 1668
>>> Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 1669
>>> Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 1670
>>> Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 1671
>>> Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 1672
>>> Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 1673
>>> Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 1674
>>> SQUASHFS error: sb_bread failed reading block 0x9dbb7
>>> SQUASHFS error: unable to read uid/gid table

On each of the above lines a similar series of numbers precedes as in the first line, but with different numbers, but I didn't write them down. Cont.:

>>> BusyBox v.1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-3ubuntu3) Built-in shell (ash)
>>> Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands
>>> /bin/sh: can't access tty; job turned off
>>> (initramfs) _

Then I write help and a list of commands appears, but I don't know what to do so I just reset the computer.

All that I wrote down last night. I just woke up a while ago and booted to the Ubuntu CD and chose the option "Test CD for defects". The same problem, I just pressed reset. BUT this is interesting: at some point, not sure if it was after or before pressing reset, a weird cracking sound came from somewhere in the computer case. Judging from the fact that my DVD drive isn't showing up in Vista and it's not responding to the eject button either, the sound came from there. But I think it'll work if I shut the PC down and turn it on again.

Do you suppose it's a problem with the DVD drive, or is there something wrong with the CD..?

vpleht

Thanks for the report back!


Quote:

The next thing was just a random idea, it wouldn't hurt to try, I thought. I changed the IDE disk's jumpers to "cable select" and assigned it to the gray slave cable. Everything worked fine! So in the end, there was absolutely nothing wrong with any of the software used to partition the HDD or anything, just a matter of master or slave. I guess Vista doesn't like "primary master" IDE drives when booting off from a SATA drive.

Interesting--I've seen reports where folks have had to change from *jumpered* master/slave HDD's to *cable select* to get the system to *play nice* with the HDD's, as well as your experience--changing from *cable select* to a *jumpered* master/slave setup--I wonder where the problem is--BIOS or Windows not liking the combination of HDD controllers?!

vpleht wrote on Jul 29^th, 2007 at 3:45am:

"... I guess Vista doesn't like "primary master" IDE drives when booting off from a SATA drive..."

On the other hand, my Dell Dimension 8300 running WIN XP Pro did not like "primary slave or cable select" IDE drives when booting off from a SATA drive (see link below).

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1115415636/3#3

EP :'(

NightOwl wrote on Jul 29^th, 2007 at 10:05am:

vpleht Thanks for the report back! Quote: The next thing was just a random idea, it wouldn't hurt to try, I thought. I changed the IDE disk's jumpers to "cable select" and assigned it to the gray slave cable. Everything worked fine! So in the end, there was absolutely nothing wrong with any of the software used to partition the HDD or anything, just a matter of master or slave. I guess Vista doesn't like "primary master" IDE drives when booting off from a SATA drive. Interesting--I've seen reports where folks have had to change from *jumpered* master/slave HDD's to *cable select* to get the system to *play nice* with the HDD's, as well as your experience--changing from *cable select* to a *jumpered* master/slave setup--I wonder where the problem is--BIOS or Windows not liking the combination of HDD controllers?!

My experience _was_ that changing from *jumpered* TO *cable select* makes it work, not the other way around. Anyhow, maybe I was wrong with the statement of mine that you quoted - it could be that Vista just doesn't like hard disks that are jumpered to be master. Therefore it could be that Vista would allow for Primary Master IDE drives that are set to master by cable select.

vpleht


Quote:

My experience _was_ that changing from *jumpered* TO *cable select* makes it work, not the other way around.

Sorry, got it backwards!  Actually, I've seen more reports that using *cable select* solves problems than the other way around--apparently modern HDD controllers prefer that setting!


Quote:

it could be that Vista just doesn't like hard disks that are jumpered to be master. Therefore it could be that Vista would allow for Primary Master IDE drives that are set to master by cable select.

You're in a great position to easily test that theory!

I'll test that at the next bootup, then we know  :)

Any way you could help me with the linux problem though?

vpleht


Quote:

Any way you could help me with the linux problem though?

Mr. Magoo is the Linux guy--if he doesn't check this thread and respond by tomorrow--you might start a new thread specific to your problem--make sure *Linux* is in the title--he usually responds to that  :) !

This thread has been off the Linux topic for some time.

I tested the drive as primary master on cable select, Vista just ignored it, seems. Which is weird though, because when I had just installed Vista on the 500gb disk, I reconnected the 120gb disk to move files, and Vista had no problem recognizing it. It was primary master by jumpers then. But as soon as I had repartitioned and -formatted it, Vista didn't like it anymore.
But it works on primary slave on cable select.


NightOwl wrote on Jul 29^th, 2007 at 5:26pm:

vpleht Quote: Any way you could help me with the linux problem though? Mr. Magoo is the Linux guy--if he doesn't check this thread and respond by tomorrow--you might start a new thread specific to your problem--make sure *Linux* is in the title--he usually responds to that  :) ! This thread has been off the Linux topic for some time.

Ok, I think I'll make a new thread of it right away. :)

NightOwl,

A piece of light reading.


Quote:

Extended Master Boot Record The Extended Master Boot Record (EMBR) is defined as the area of a hard disk from physical cylinder 0, head 0, sector 2, to (and including) the last physical sector of cylinder 0, head 0. The actual area available to the EMBR depends upon the BIOS mapping of the logical CHS and reserved sectors. The minimum availability requirements for the EMBR is sectors 3 through 17.

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:Chv2oBysmCgJ:www.bootitng.com/specs/embr2.pdf+embr&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=au

Brian


Quote:

A piece of light reading.

Indeed!

Thank you for your link--almost looks like the EMBR may be a TeraByte Unlimited specification specific to their specialized software--kinda hard to tell!

But, that area on the HDD is where special code is placed when you have special boot software such as RAID Array support, or the older *Over-drive* software used on some older systems that did not have BIOS support for larger HDD's.

Also, some password and encryption software place their code here--as well as some anti-piracy code (activation code) that prevents using programs on other systems.

I wonder how these various programs use this area without conflict, and over-writing other software code--hopefully they are designed to be aware of other code in this area.

NightOwl,

On a practical basis, TeraByte has a tool to protect the EMBR. EMBRLock. I don't know how this affects programs which later try to use these sectors. Perhaps it just protects its own sectors.


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This utility will protect the EMBR area on hard drives in the system against the few ill behaved Windows programs which unnecessarily modify physical sectors on the hard drive  --  most using C_DILLA.  A list of known programs is contained in the readme.txt file included with EMBRLock.  If you don't have a problem then there is no need to use this utility.

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EMBRLock protects individual sectors within the EMBR yet allows existing programs to continue to work.

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Here is a list of known programs which may try to write sectors within the EMBR: * Mechwarrior 4 Mech Pak (several). * TurboTax. * Novell's Zen For Desktops 4 imaging component. * In general programs using the C_DILLA (SafeDisk/SafeCast) copy protection.  There are quite a few games which use it.