Re: partition magic stops working after installing linux

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Date: 16 Sep 2004 14:05:21 -0700

gupta.ayush@gmail.com (John Karuski) wrote in message news:<8e801504.0409150401.77ebbab8@posting.google.com>...
> I had installed Windows XP on my hard disk. I had 3 partitions using
> Partition Magic 8. Then I created 2 more partitions(ext3 and swap). I
> installed SuSE Personal 9.1 Linux on them. Since I couldnt get SuSE
> Professional, I decided to install Fedora Core2. I did so and
> overwrote the SuSE installation. Everything works fine except
> Partition Magic refuses to start from Windows XP. It give Error 117
> (Drive Letter Not Found).
>
> My guess is that Windows or whoever is supposed to, has not assigned
> drive letters to the linux partitions. My friend has the same problem
> and coinicidentally, he had also overwrote one installation with
> another. When I installed Fedora with Windows XP Home on another PC
> without overwriting the distro, PartitionMagic still is working fine.
>
>
> PartitionMagic site at symantec has no solution for error 117 with
> Windows XP, only with windows 95/98 and that is to run it under
> MS-DOS.
>
> Any help would be appreciated. Thanx in advance.

Guess I need to post a warning about this -- just found the
problem/solution today when helping someone else :-(

The ntfsresize Frequently Asked Questions
http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html
[quote]
Jul 9, 2004
WARNING! Be careful when partitioning on Linux 2.6 kernels!
Partitioning softwares using Parted or libparted versions less than
1.6.12 MIGHT corrupt the partition table, that MIGHT break the Windows
boot process, moreover you MIGHT even lose access to your data from
all installed or rescue operating systems. This problem is not NTFS
related, we mention this because of the severity and because many
people incorrectly believe it is NTFS or NTFS resizing related. These
problems can happen using FAT32 or any other filesystem too, or if one
just creates new partitions. If your NTFS was resized beforehand then
your data is intact. The problems caused by the disk geometry
detection code of the Linux 2.6 kernels are recoverable without data
loss. Reports are from users of Mandrake 10, SUSE 9.1, Fedora 2,
Debian, Gentoo, MEPIS but all other Linux distributions have the same
problem using Linux 2.6 and Parted or libparted unless it was
independently resolved or Parted version is at least 1.6.12. Please
see more details below.
[end quote]

Re: Suse 9.1

Windows No Longer Boots Following the Installation of SUSE LINUX 9.1
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/05/fhassel_windows_not_booting91.html
[quote]
The problem cannot be solved by restoring the original MBR with YaST
or by rewriting the MBR with Windows tools (with the command FIXMBR or
FIXBOOT from the Windows rescue console). Repairing the partition
table with proprietary partitioning tools does not solve the problem
and may even destroy the entire partition table. The problem cannot
even be solved by uninstalling Linux or reinstalling Windows without
deleting the entire hard disk.
[end quote]

The link gives instructions on how to fix this without losing data.

hth,
prg
email above disabled

• Previous message: P Gentry: "Re: Windows won't start after partition resize"
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