dual-boot partitioning problem

[the_enigmatic]

Hello!

I have a problem on partitioning my new Harddisk(Hitachi Deskstar IDE 250GB) for a dual-boot system. (PC: Intel P4, Asus Board)

Using fdisk, I created the following partitioning table:
1 NTFS (50G, type 7)
2 ext2 (boot, type 83)
3 swap (type 82)
4 extended partition (type 7)
5 ext3 (/, 95GB, type 83)
6 fat32 (32G, type c)
7 fat32 (32G, type c)
8 fat32 (32G, type c)

The sizes are approximate values.

When installing WinXP, the installer does not recognize the 3 fat32 partitions, and even the disk size is not recognized correctly -- 132G instead of 250G (I tried with all available jumper settings for 15 and 16 heads; same result in each case). But anyway, after installing WinXP the Windows Disk Management shows the correct disk size, and all partitions with the correct size, except of the three fat32 partitions -- they appear as unrecognized area).
Lacking any better idea, I created these 3 partitions again under Windows. Then I installed gentoo using the latest live CD. Hereby everything went well, and even the three fat32 partitions appeared correctly in fdisk again. I rebooted both systems a couple of times to check if everything is ok. But after turning off the pc and starting again, grub shows Error 17. Now fdisk (using live cd again to boot) showed that the partition table is completely destroyed.

Unfortunately my partitioning knowledge is not too deep. I tried to make this setup several times, without success. Has anyone an idea what is going wrong here? Any help appreciated!!

Even this issue is obviously related very much to Windows, maybe some of you encountered a similar problem or has some hint for me ...

Best Regards,
Andy

[dmartinsca]

Sounds like you may be running into the "137G limit". Both your motherboard BIOS and operating system need to support drives over 137GB. I've never had to deal with this myself, but from what I've read you should first check the Asus website for information about your motherboard and it's support for drives over 137GB. You might have to flash your BIOS with a newer version to fix the problem. Also, (and again, just from what i've read) the original version of Windows XP doesn't support drives over 137GB, you need to install at least Service Pack 1, so if you're using a XP cd which doesn't have Service Pack 2 integrated into it then be sure to run Windows Update and get SP2 before trying to do anything to the hard drive from within Windows!

Sorry I don't have a definite answer, but hopefully this will point you in the right direction.

[madisonicus]

Windows can only be installed on a primary partition so far as I know, so the installer may very well not recognize any logical partitions.

For security and efficiency reasons, XP doesn't really like NTFS for installations (MS article on NTFS). Did you follow the recommended MS steps when you redid your partitioning scheme in Windows? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348

As for the corrupted partition table, I've had a lot of success with testdisk. It is available on the Knoppix disk I believe. It may or may not be on the Gentoo LiveCD; I haven't checked.

HTH,
m
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[the_enigmatic]

Well, I think it was actually an issue with this 137GB limit of WinXP without SP2. After installing it, also the three fat32 partitions appeared correctly in the Windows disk managemnt. I thought that I also installd SP2 in my previous attempts, but obviously did not.

btw: I had no success to restore the partition table with testdisk in this case.

Thanks a lot for your answers! My problem seems to be solved and I will try to install gentoo in the next days again.

Best Regards,
Andy