OT: Windows partition copy

[Alma J Wetzker]

Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
> I will answer all replies here together. The partition is on the primary
> hard disk. It is also the first (I know that does not matter). And it is
> active. Here is the disk layout:
> 
> Disk /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc: 80.0 GB, 80000000000 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> 
> Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> part1   *           1         512     4112608+   c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
> part2             513         575      506047+  82  Linux swap
> part3             576        2302    13872127+  83  Linux
> part4            2303        9726    59633280   83  Linux
> 
> I want to boot from partition 1.
> 
> I copied by making a new partition and copying the files. I do know that
> all are there. With the exception of the boot tracks inside the
> partition itself. I have the same version of windows on a machine at
> work (MSVC++ is DITW in Wine/Win4Lin...). I am going to see if I can get
> the boot part of that partition some way. The rest of that other
> computer is UnixWare (ok, it is the computer from hell). Maybe I can dd
> the boot part of the Windows partition off one disk and put it on
> another... Next stop: Google.

Remember that Win98 is DOS.  There are two files that must be marked hidden, 
system and read-only.  (*io.sys, *dos.sys)  These files must be the first two 
files physically located in the partition's hard drive.  (That is where grub 
turns control to on boot.)  I don't remember which one needs to be first.

DOS, which includes Win[95 98 ME], can be in any partition including an 
extended partition.  The restriction is that there must not be another 
partition that it can read before it in the partition table.  (i.e. I must be 
on drive 'C:')

> 
> If I make a boot floppy, maybe I can get a Windows boot off the
> partition and do something.

The floppy should work but that will not let you make the partition bootable. 
  The DOS and IO files need to be the first two files on the partition.  If 
you already have files in that position, you need to get rid of them and find 
some way (sys c: | format c: /s) to put those files where they are needed.

If you did a dd or something similar and all the files are there, check 
"attrib *.sys" to make sure the files are hidden, system and read-only.  If 
any one of those flags is missing, the system will not boot.
> 
> BTW, dd was not an option as I needed to resize the partition and do not
> fully trust resizing. I did that on a SUSE9.0 install to a EXT
> partition. It happily made one smaller during install (not the one it
> was installing to), but it did not bother to move the files from the
> part that was no longer to be in the partition. It was an experiment to
> see how it worked. I won't be doing that with a needed partition any
> time soon!
> 
> On Fri, 2004-08-27 at 21:07, Mike Reinehr wrote:
> 
>>Another question is 'how did you move it?' I can't remember the details, but I 
>>seem to remember that a MS formated partition has something specific written 
>>to the first block or two of a partition. You should have been ok if you dd'd 
>>it, but if you tar'ed then all bets are off.
>>
>>mike
>>
>>On Friday 27 August 2004 01:17 pm, Net Llama! wrote:
>>
>>>On Fri, 27 Aug 2004, Michael Hipp wrote:
>>>
>>>>Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>I had no choice. I had to keep a Windows 98 partition. But I moved it
>>>>>elsewhere on the disk. Now, GRUB will not boot into that partition.
>>>>
>>>>Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I think you're out of luck. The
>>>>DOS-kernel Windows (9x/ME) won't boot from anywhere but a primary
>>>>partition and I'm not sure they will actually boot from any but the
>>>>first partition. Make sure the partition is 'active' and not 'hidden' by
>>>>using a partitioning tool.
>>>
>>>I don't think it has to be the first partition, but it definitely has to
>>>be a primary parition on the first boot device.
>>>
>>>
>>>>The NT-Kernel Windows (NT/2k/XP) are more forgiving about where you
>>>>locate them.
>>>>
>>>>Why did you move it? It would never occur to me to attempt to move a
>>>>DOS/Win9x partion. The only safe place for such a thing is hda1 (C:).
>>>
>>>or /dev/null  ;)

Good luck!

     -- Alma