chris:b Posted May 30, 2004 Report Share Posted May 30, 2004 Just want to tell that I just had the known problem of a screwed MBR/partition table, not with the 10.0 Community Ed. but with 10.0 Official. Even worse, I didn't *install* 10.0: - Running MDK 10.0 Official, kernel 2.6.3-7mdk - Created a new ext3 partition, and formatted it. - After a reboot, I couldn't boot Win XP (on a NTFS partion, on hda1), only a blinking cursor - Booting with the Win XP install cd (and doing fixmbr, fixboot and all this stuff) didn't help to repair the MBR, still a blinking cursor - Booting with the MDK cd 1 and the rescue stuff didn't help The only solution was to go to the BIOS, to the settings of the harddisk: change the mode from *auto* to *LBA*. After these changes no other steps were needed. All Lilo entries were working fine, incl. Win XP. Seems to me that, as soon as you change partitions/create new partitions, and the HD mode in the bios is set to *auto*, and you have a NTFS partition - then you encounter this very annoying bug. (Suse 9.1 with kernel 2.6.x and Fedora FC 2 with ketnel 2.6.x have similiar problems, if I am not mistaken) So, if you are new to Linux, and you plan to set up a dual boot system, I'd suggest that you first go to your BIOS and set the LBA mode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted May 30, 2004 Report Share Posted May 30, 2004 Personally, I've always set my disks to LBA in BIOS. I remember reading this as a suggested step when I installed Linux for the first time back in 1999. Just kind of stuck in my mind I guess... Just adding some side thoughts, ignore me ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghil Vertefeuille Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 then a question...what's the difference between LBA and auto? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarissi Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 I have been using LBA since before I tried Linux. Had to in order to get 61 GB hdds fully seen with super socket 7 mobos. Now that I know the problem, at least with mandrake and auto or non LBA, I won't use any other mode. I think the difference, is that auto defaults to CHS (I think), and Linux hates CHS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghil Vertefeuille Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 (edited) ok but it is okay for me to do that to my two HDs without breaking anything huh? then I'll try it out, if it fixes the problem :D edit: can't find that in my BIOS... Edited May 31, 2004 by Ghil Vertefeuille Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris:b Posted May 31, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 edit: can't find that in my BIOS... I found it hard to find where in the BIOS these settings are. If I remember well, in my AWARD bios (two years old), it has been: Standard CMOS setup --> primary master ide (because I have one hda, IDE) --> two submenus there: - detection (automatically or manually) and -mode <--- I had to hit <enter> to see and change the mode to LBA. Some computer manufacturer are 'cutting' the BIOS, so you are limitted in changing settings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghil Vertefeuille Posted May 31, 2004 Report Share Posted May 31, 2004 ok I'll try to check that out, thank you ^_^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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