Re: partition problem; "partition table inconsistent.."

[Mick Mearns <mrkingdaddysir yahoo com>]

--- Matthew Scott Burton <msb13 duke edu> wrote:
> i'm installing RH 7.2 to dual boot with Win98. I created a new
> partition at cylinder 1012; my Win partition has about 7.9 gigs, my
> linux partition about 5. yet when i get to disk druid or fdisk, i get
> the message,
> 
> "The partition table on /tmp/hda is inconsistent [...] detected the
> BIOS geometry incorrectly.  However, this does not appear to be the
> case here[...]safe to ignore[...]may cause (fixable) problems with some
> boot loaders [...]".
> 
> when using fdisk, the first thing it tells me is that my partition is
> 1664 cylinders. What? I installed RH 6 before (and have since deleted
> it) and placed the partition in about the same location (just below
> 1024) and didn't have this problem. What's strange is that the
> language of this message implies that it's the SIZE of the partition
> that matters ("this partition is 1664 cylinders. there's nothing wrong
> with that, but it's greater than 1024..."), instead of its starting
> point, which I thought was critical for the boot partition. Either
> way, neither the starting point nor the total size of this partition
> are anywhere near 1664. Any suggestions?
> 
> 
> thanks,
> matt

Hello;
    I have had this happen on one system.
When the system boots it will give you the Cyl/Head/Sector in the bios splash
screen before Grub/Lilo comes up.
Write this down, or remove the drive and write down the numbers.
You are probably using LBA for such a big drive.
Usually the cylinder count changes and the heads are 255, sectors 63.

Usual warnings about backing up data - against hosing your system completely.

Go into fdisk (fdisk /dev/hda).
Do a 'p' to see what it thinks it is.
Write this down - you may need to re-enter these numbers.

I would delete the new partition, and if possible the Win98 one too.

To change the Cyl/Hd/Sec you need to type 'x' for expert mode.
Then 'c' for cyl - enter the number.
Then 'h' for heads - enter the number.
Then 's' for sector - enter the number.

Then 'r' to return to the main menu.
Then 'p' to show the new numbers.

Up to this point no changes have been made to the partition table.
Now
Type 'w' to write the changes and exit.

Now you should be able to go back into fdisk and add your partitions.
Don't forget to add a swap partition of size 2xRAM.

(Just add a new partition and change its type to '82' )
'n' 'p' start-cyl enter end-cyl enter
't' partition # '82'
then 'p' to make sure.
Again 'w' to write it out and save it.

good luck

Mick



=====
"just a guy in a garage - south of Seattle" 
Reg Linux User #105295 - http://counter.li.org/

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