I see problems with partitioning or losing partions or booting are common when someone tries to install ataraid and also another OS (Windows) on the same computer. Here are my suggestions. Please add if you have more. 1) ataraid + Windows or Promise raid + Windows: I think if you install Windows first, it cleans the MBR or corrupts it. It thinks its doing a favor but its not. So sometimes you lose partitions in Linux or you cant save the changes to partitions you made. If Linux is already installed but you cannot boot it after installing Windows, you can boot linux with Rescue floppy. Sometimes, its better to install LILO boot loader on the first partition than the MBR to keep Windows happy. Or, install Windows first and then go on to Linux installation. If you think Windows did already damage, you can clean your MBR. Make array in FastTrak BIOS, boot in dos floppy and type FDISK /MBR 2) md raid with or without another Windows OS: I had a lot of problems even partitioning. I found that I should delete array from FastTrak, boot in Linux CD, partition disks. You may see a warning something like "Unable to re-read the partition table", "Kernel does not know partition changes" or "Invalid partition" etc. Reboot again into Linux CD, manual partition with DRUID and you should see all partitions. Reboot again but this time make raid array in FastTrak BIOS. Boot into Linux CD, manual partition with DRUID. You have edit mount points or create MD raid devices and continue with installation. You will again get warnings about partition table, which you can ignore. 3) Really strange partitioning errors that cannot be fixed as above: For really strange problems with partitioning clear the Reserve Sector. Most people dont need to do this, only the real unfortunate people. Heres what Promise says: Clearing Reserve Sector (dont do this unless you satisfy 3. above) ----------------------- WARNING: Before removing the Reserve Sector of the drive(s), backup any existing data. Removal of the reserve sector of any drive permanently deletes all existing data on the hard drive. For Mirrored arrays (RAID 1), you should remove the Reserve Sector from the "mirrored" drive first (this will appear during Step 3 below) then rebuild the mirrored array. Remove the Sector on the Master Drive only as a last resort. For Striped arrays (RAID 0), removing the Reserve Sector from any of the drives that are striped will destroy the arrayed data. To remove the Reserve Sector, follow these steps: 1. When the FastTrak100 BIOS comes up, press Crtl-F to enter the FastBuild. 2. Press 2 to "View Drive Assignments". 3. Using the arrow keys, highlight the drive where you wish to remove the reserve sector. 4. Press ALT-F1. The highlighted drive will start blinking on the screen. 5. Press CTRL-TAB. A message will appear that says the reserved sector (which is where array information is kept) on the disk will be wiped. 6. Press "Y" to confirm. 7. For a mirrored arrays, hit the "ESC" key twice to reboot and skip to step 10. 8. For striped arrays, repeat this process for each member of the particular array that is having a problem. 9. When finished, hit the "ESC" key twice to reboot. 10. After rebooting, use FastBuild to re-create the array. For mirrored arrays, rebuild the mirrored array. For striped arrays, use FDISK and FORMAT after setting up the array.
