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October 14th, 2007 10:00
fdisk in gentoo install doesn't work (no write permissions to part. table)
Hi,
I recently bought myself a Vostro 1700: it has Windows Vista installed. I'm planning to move to Gentoo linux. I have a couple of questions..
First of all I have 2 hard disks, the first has C:/ (os) and E:/ (backup) on it, the second D:/ has nothing on it...
I'm planning to install Linux on the second one. I downloaded the gentoo minimal install cd, and did
fdisk /dev/hda
(I already find this suspicious, since there is no /dev/hdb recognized...)
I get the following message:
You will not be able to write to the partition table.
Note: Sector size is 2048 (not 512)
Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
Until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous content won’t be recoverable.
I find this rather strange... I probably can force it to rewrite the table. But then all my windows data is gone. Can someone tell me what is causing this problem, and why only one hard disk is detected? (Or does windows just distincts it as 2 hard disks (like a primary/secondary), which would be more logic, since I would find it rather stupid to put 2 times a 120gb hard disk in a laptop, instead of 1 time a 240gb hard disk, which would be a lot more compact and saves a lot of space)
As an alternative, I can probably put all these problems behind me, if someone can tell me how the recovery-process works. I see some data on e:/ (recovery). If I back this up, and later create the partition again and copy it back. Would the recovery cd I insert recognize it? Or is there some image written on the hard disk which starts from some sector on the hard disk, and hence can not be recognized anymore (unless I partition the hard disk exactly the same). Or... Can I make a windows backup (tool in windows) and store it on an external media, and then (in the very distant future) install windows vista again (not all drivers for hardware included), and then use the backup... Would that turn out fine?
Of course, my primary interest would be a dual boot, and knowing what causes the problems when using fdisk (using cfdisk doesn't work either)
Message Edited by yannick_ on 10-14-2007 07:00 AM
I recently bought myself a Vostro 1700: it has Windows Vista installed. I'm planning to move to Gentoo linux. I have a couple of questions..
First of all I have 2 hard disks, the first has C:/ (os) and E:/ (backup) on it, the second D:/ has nothing on it...
I'm planning to install Linux on the second one. I downloaded the gentoo minimal install cd, and did
fdisk /dev/hda
(I already find this suspicious, since there is no /dev/hdb recognized...)
I get the following message:
You will not be able to write to the partition table.
Note: Sector size is 2048 (not 512)
Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
Until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous content won’t be recoverable.
I find this rather strange... I probably can force it to rewrite the table. But then all my windows data is gone. Can someone tell me what is causing this problem, and why only one hard disk is detected? (Or does windows just distincts it as 2 hard disks (like a primary/secondary), which would be more logic, since I would find it rather stupid to put 2 times a 120gb hard disk in a laptop, instead of 1 time a 240gb hard disk, which would be a lot more compact and saves a lot of space)
As an alternative, I can probably put all these problems behind me, if someone can tell me how the recovery-process works. I see some data on e:/ (recovery). If I back this up, and later create the partition again and copy it back. Would the recovery cd I insert recognize it? Or is there some image written on the hard disk which starts from some sector on the hard disk, and hence can not be recognized anymore (unless I partition the hard disk exactly the same). Or... Can I make a windows backup (tool in windows) and store it on an external media, and then (in the very distant future) install windows vista again (not all drivers for hardware included), and then use the backup... Would that turn out fine?
Of course, my primary interest would be a dual boot, and knowing what causes the problems when using fdisk (using cfdisk doesn't work either)
Message Edited by yannick_ on 10-14-2007 07:00 AM
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