I broke it! How can I fix it?

[C M Reinehr]

On Friday 28 September 2007 19:19, Collins Richey wrote:
> On 9/28/07, C M Reinehr <cmr at amsent.com> wrote:
> > When you added the extended partition you rewrote the partition table and
> > I suspect that it did so in a way that confounded the Vista boot loader.
> > My previous experience with WinXP & Win98 taught me never to use Linux
> > tools to manipulate Windows partition. (I was forced to buy a copy of
> > Partition Magic.) Then, once the partitions were correct I would install
> > Linux into a free partition.
>
> I beg to differ. I have found the Ubuntu/Debian partitioner (I believe
> parted is used under the covers) to be quite effective and error free
> (at least released code is, all bets are off with a development
> release) when resizing an NTFS setup. That's what I used 2 1/2 years
> ago on my desktop, and I'm still using the results. Also, it is normal
> after shrinking an NTFS partition for windows to filesystem check the
> partition on the first windows boot. Parted turns on the 'check
> required' flag.

	No argument! I haven't had to maintain a dual-boot system in four to six 
years. I was just reporting my experience, dated though it may be.

> The main reason (IMO) that he had difficulty in booting windows is the
> missing boot flag. My PC has the same setup with a small recovery
> partition (the first actual) partition on the disk) and the main NTFS
> area (the second actual partition). But windows in it's great wisdom
> has labeled the second partition h/sda1 and the first partition
> s/hda2, so fdisk always complains that partitions are out of order.
>
> Until recently, when I had to use the windows stuff for an HP online
> Linux class (yes, you read that right, you need a windows PC to take
> any remote classes from HP), I seldom boot windows. When I did,
> windows wanted to recover the hard drive. After a little puzzlement, I
> discovered that somewhere along the way one of my many Linux installs
> had marked h/sda2 as the bootable partition. Toggling the flag on
> h/sda1 cured the problem.

	But, it's just these sort of logical inconsistencies that make it difficult 
to work on a Windows system with anything other than Windows tools. It's not 
that it can't be done, it's just that most people (I include myself) don't 
know how.

Cheers!

cmr
-- 
Debian 'Etch' - Registered Linux User #241964
--------
"More laws, less justice." -- Marcus Tullius Ciceroca, 42 BC