Hi I fall in that disk geometry trap of kernel 2.6...Original i have win XP and luckly found your article on how to salvage the situation...but it didn work...I followed it to the letter...nothing... Here is something rather interesting: If i run: fdisk -l /dev/hda I get: ================================================================== Disk /dev/hda: 61.4 GB, 61492838400 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7476 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 1543 12390808+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda2 1543 7476 47658240 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/hda5 1543 3072 12284968+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda6 3073 4602 12284968+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda7 4602 6131 12284968+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda8 6131 6386 2048728+ b W95 FAT32 /dev/hda9 6386 7410 8221720+ 83 Linux /dev/hda10 7410 7476 532696+ 82 Linux swap ================================================================== which is great, the head count is correct, as the article should result in. But, if i run: sfdisk -g /dev/hda I get: ================================================================== /dev/hda: 119150 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors/track ================================================================== As if nothing has happened! In fact, when i run: sfdisk -d /dev/hda | sfdisk --no-reread -H255 /dev/hda I get: ================================================================== Warning: HDIO_GETGEO says that there are 16 heads Disk /dev/hda: 119150 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary. DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently. Old situation: Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0 Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 0+ 1542- 1543- 12390808+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda2 1542+ 7475- 5934- 47658240 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/hda3 0 - 0 0 0 Empty /dev/hda4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty /dev/hda5 1542+ 3071 1530- 12284968+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda6 3072+ 4601- 1530- 12284968+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda7 4601+ 6130- 1530- 12284968+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda8 6130+ 6385- 256- 2048728+ b W95 FAT32 /dev/hda9 6385+ 7409- 1024- 8221720+ 83 Linux /dev/hda10 7409+ 7475- 67- 532696+ 82 Linux swap New situation: Units = sectors of 512 bytes, counting from 0 Device Boot Start End #sectors Id System /dev/hda1 * 63 24781679 24781617 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda2 24781680 120098159 95316480 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/hda3 0 - 0 0 Empty /dev/hda4 0 - 0 0 Empty /dev/hda5 24781743 49351679 24569937 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda6 49351743 73921679 24569937 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda7 73921743 98491679 24569937 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda8 98491743 102589199 4097457 b W95 FAT32 /dev/hda9 102589263 119032703 16443441 83 Linux /dev/hda10 119032767 120098159 1065393 82 Linux swap Warning: partition 1 does not end at a cylinder boundary sfdisk: I don't like these partitions - nothing changed. (If you really want this, use the --force option.) ================================================================== what is this warning: ¨Warning: HDIO_GETGEO says that there are 16 heads¨ I also noticed that, in the second line of the above listing, head count is correct (255) but the cylindar number is incorrect (should be 7476) And if i run: sfdisk -d /dev/hda | sfdisk --no-reread -H255 /dev/hda --force I get: ================================================================== Warning: HDIO_GETGEO says that there are 16 heads Disk /dev/hda: 119150 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary. DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently. Old situation: Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0 Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 0+ 1542- 1543- 12390808+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda2 1542+ 7475- 5934- 47658240 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/hda3 0 - 0 0 0 Empty /dev/hda4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty /dev/hda5 1542+ 3071 1530- 12284968+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda6 3072+ 4601- 1530- 12284968+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda7 4601+ 6130- 1530- 12284968+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda8 6130+ 6385- 256- 2048728+ b W95 FAT32 /dev/hda9 6385+ 7409- 1024- 8221720+ 83 Linux /dev/hda10 7409+ 7475- 67- 532696+ 82 Linux swap New situation: Units = sectors of 512 bytes, counting from 0 Device Boot Start End #sectors Id System /dev/hda1 * 63 24781679 24781617 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda2 24781680 120098159 95316480 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/hda3 0 - 0 0 Empty /dev/hda4 0 - 0 0 Empty /dev/hda5 24781743 49351679 24569937 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda6 49351743 73921679 24569937 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda7 73921743 98491679 24569937 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda8 98491743 102589199 4097457 b W95 FAT32 /dev/hda9 102589263 119032703 16443441 83 Linux /dev/hda10 119032767 120098159 1065393 82 Linux swap Warning: partition 1 does not end at a cylinder boundary Successfully wrote the new partition table Re-reading the partition table ... BLKRRPART: Device or resource busy The command to re-read the partition table failed Reboot your system now, before using mkfs If you created or changed a DOS partition, /dev/foo7, say, then use dd(1) to zero the first 512 bytes: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/foo7 bs=512 count=1 (See fdisk(8).) ================================================================== I alse tried outputing to a text file first, same result, in fact, there are no warning messages: sfdisk -d /dev/hda will give: ================================================================== # partition table of /dev/hda unit: sectors /dev/hda1 : start= 63, size= 24781617, Id= 7, bootable /dev/hda2 : start= 24781680, size= 95316480, Id= f /dev/hda3 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0 /dev/hda4 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0 /dev/hda5 : start= 24781743, size= 24569937, Id= 7 /dev/hda6 : start= 49351743, size= 24569937, Id= 7 /dev/hda7 : start= 73921743, size= 24569937, Id= 7 /dev/hda8 : start= 98491743, size= 4097457, Id= b /dev/hda9 : start=102589263, size= 16443441, Id=83 /dev/hda10: start=119032767, size= 1065393, Id=82 ================================================================== one last note, i set the hard disk to LBA from BIOS. Can you please help me? I appreciate it.
