Re: partition second hard drive

From: Pigeon (jah.pigeon_at_ukonline.co.uk)
Date: 09/28/04

  • Next message: Pigeon: "Re: Newbie first-time install advice: Highpoint Rocket 133SB"
    Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 01:06:59 +0100
    To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
    
    
    

    On Mon, Sep 27, 2004 at 10:36:45AM +1200, cr wrote:
    > On Sun, 26 Sep 2004 04:01, dougpol1@adelphia.net wrote:
    > > Hello all,
    > > I had a dual boot system with Windows and Linux
    > > installed. Bought a new cd writer and found out I had to
    > > upgrade win 98 to SE to use new software for writer. SE
    > > costs more than the writer did. Nuts to microsoft.
    > > Took Windows out and installed Debian Sarge with
    > > the new installer. I really am happy with it.
    > > My question is How do I reformat my second hard
    > > drive that is presently Fat 32 windows so that Linux can
    > > use it for backup. I tried cfdisk but linux cannot see the
    > > drive. I have a Maxtor cd for the drive, which is Maxtor,
    > > but there is no Linux formating available on it. I sent
    > > them an e-mail asking why not.
    > > Thanks in advance for any help.
    > > Doug
    >
    > That's very odd. fdisk or cfdisk can usually see a FAT drive (I've been
    > messing around with multiple hard drives for yonks and never had a problem
    > with 'seeing' them). Sorry to ask this but you are giving cfdisk the right
    > address (as in "cfdisk /dev/hdb") I suppose? Umm, if you swapped drives
    > around I suppose you did the right things with the drive select jumpers?
    > (sorry to mention that but these things happen....)

    Doubt that's it, his dmesg output shows both drives being recognised.

    > I've never found the make of drive to make any difference, and I've used
    > Maxtor, Seagate, Fujitsu, Quantum, Western Digital... so I'm not sure what
    > the Maxtor CD would have on it other than fairly generic formatting tools.
    >
    > I believe it's usually recommended to remove partitions using the software
    > that created them - that is, using Windows FDISK to remove the partitions on
    > the drive; then Linux fdisk/cfdisk to create new (and, I think, mke2fs to
    > format them). Whether your old W98 CD (if you have one) will allow you to
    > run FDISK without installing Windows, I have no idea. (Nor do I know
    > whether W98 will even contemplate addressing anything other than the
    > first-and-only partition in the machine :)

    Generally you *create* partitions with software for the OS that's
    going to use them, which means that setting up a dual-boot system
    involves using FDISK first and cfdisk second because cfdisk is
    intelligent enough not to trash FDISK's partitions but not vice versa.
    Deleting partitions isn't a problem. If you really want to make sure,
    use dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdb bs=512 count=1 to nuke the partition
    table.

    What exactly is the output when you run cfdisk /dev/hdb ?

    -- 
    Pigeon
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