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   From: Richard Steven Hack    
   Subject: Re: My ubuntu experience   
   Newsgroups: alt.comp.freeware,alt.os.linux.ubuntu   
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   os.linux.ubuntu:10092   
      
   On Tue, 06 Feb 2007 22:07:37 +0000, Slip Kid wrote:   
      
   > So, on disc2 (the third drive) I will affect more than the partition in    
   > which Ubuntu resides?  I thought I was only changing the 20Gig of the    
   > 60Gig drive.   
      
   A partition table holds the definitions of every partition on the drive.   
   So, yes, by definition you're "affecting" more than one partition whenever   
   you change the partition table.   
      
   You're not actually "affecting" any other partition than the one you're   
   changing, but IF the partition manager screws up, yes, you can screw up   
   more than one partition. Actually, what gets screwed up is the partition   
   table, but the effect of that can be that your OS now starts writing to   
   the wrong place on the drive, thereby screwing up the partition itself.   
      
   In other words, you can screw up the partition table itself, thus   
   preventing the OS from doing anything with the entire drive. That's one   
   way of screwing up.   
      
   Or you can screw up the partition table such that the table is thought to   
   be okay by the OS, but the table causes the OS to screw up the partitions.   
      
   I had that happen to me once with Windows 2000 triple booting with   
   Windows XP and Red Hat 7.3. If you install Windows 2000 with only Service   
   Pack 3 on the OS CD, and then LATER you cross the 137GB disk limit,   
   Windows 2000 will hose your partition table. But ONLY when you cross that   
   137GB boundary. Up til then, everything worked fine. Installing Service   
   Pack 4 AFTER you install Win 2000 does NOT help! You have to install   
   Windows 2000 INITIALLY with Service Pack 4! I only found this out after   
   locating an obscure Microsoft Knowledgebase article that acknowledged that   
   Windows 2000 large disk support was not complete until Service Pack 4.   
      
   This is the kind of thing that can happen.   
      
   > After the install of 'any' bootloader, am I unable to 'bypass' it or    
   > directly access boot.ini? Or is boot.ini done away with?   
   > I should still be able to boot to the XP installs by using the Win sys    
   > files, from floppy...   
   > But after POST, is there is no way to 'trigger' the Win boot routine as    
   > 'any' Linux bootloader writes the instruction back to the BIOS?   
      
   No, except from another bootloader on a floppy, as you say. The BIOS goes   
   direct to the first sector of the disk and looks for a program to run.   
   That's the bootloader. The bootloader takes it from there. If the   
   bootloader is screwed up, the only way to get to your OS is to boot from a   
   bootloader that ISN'T screwed up and can find your OS loader. GRUB is good   
   at that, but again, you have to run it from a floppy or a CD.   
      
   There's a GRUB Live CD by the way which is designed to deal with issues   
   like this. It's called GRUB Super Disk and it's here:   
      
   http://supergrub.forjamari.linex.org/   
      
   The home page says the following about how it's used:   
      
   Super Grub Disk is a bootable cdrom, usb or floppy specially designed for   
   the restore of boot.   
      
   * GNU/Linux is installed in your pc, you reinstall Windows and GNU/Linux   
   no longer boots as Grub menu no longer appears on boot. You can restore    
   Grub on your MBR automatically.    
      
   * You have Windows installed in a second hard disk and it does not want   
   to boot. If you swap it from Super Grub Disk you will be able to boot it.   
      
   * You can not boot Windows because your MBR is corrupt or Grub   
   installation is not well done or whatever. With Super Grub Disk you will   
   be able to boot the partition where Windows reside.    
      
   * No Active Partition Found message appears. With Super Grub Disk you can   
   activate partitions.   
      
   Here is the features list:   
      
   Gnu/Linux:   
      
       * Fix Boot of Gnu/Linux (GRUB)   
       * Boot Gnu/Linux   
       * Boot Gnu/Linux Directly   
      
   Advanced Gnu/Linux:   
      
       * (BETA!) Fix Boot of Gnu/Linux (LILO)   
       * Boot Gnu/Linux partition   
       * Activate Linux partition   
      
   Windows:   
      
       * Fix Boot of Windows   
       * Boot Windows   
       * Boot Windows on a second hard disk   
       * Boot Windows on a second partition   
      
   Advanced Windows:   
      
       * Boot Windows from another hard disk   
       * Activate Windows partition   
       * Fix Windows Partition Boot   
      
   Boot & Tools:   
      
       * Boot MBR   
       * Boot Partition   
       * Boot Sub-Partition   
       * Activate partition   
       * Hide partition   
       * UnHide partition   
      
   GRUB:   
      
       * Boot your Linux or another OS again   
       * Restore GRUB to a hard disk MBR   
       * Restore GRUB to a partition   
       * Uninstall GRUB   
      
   Boot another OSs:   
      
       * Boot Hurd   
       * Install Hurd   
       * Boot OpenSolaris   
      
   Special boot:   
      
       * Swap hard disks and boot   
      
   > I have to weigh the odds of a total system failure (3 discs?) against    
   > the 'how practical/how often' to back up a few hundred gig.   
      
   I have a couple hundred gig myself. I do a full backup every few months   
   onto fifty or so DVDs - takes me most of a day. Then I TRY to make   
   regular backups to DVD periodically. But as usual, I haven't backed up for   
   a couple months now, so I need to REALLY do it this weekend!   
      
   Keep in mind - sooner or later every hard drive WILL fail. It's   
   inevitable. It may be two years, three years or seven years, but it WILL   
   fail.   
      
   > My only concern was the first link to GRUB gave me the sense it was    
   > 'outdated'.  OTOH, as it's part of the Ubuntu install I'd prefer to let    
   > Ubuntu run the whole install rather than pick and choose ways to modify    
   > an OS I'm not familiar with.   
      
   No, GRUB isn't outdated. GRUB 2 is being developed to replace it, is all.   
   So the GRUB most distros use is now considered "GRUB Legacy". LILO is the   
   oldest Linux boot loader and most distros prefer GRUB these days.   
   --- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5   
    * Origin: Omicron Theta BBS (1:261/20)