Re: Debian FDISK vs. Microsoft Format
On Wed, Aug 15, 2001 at 11:58:32PM -0700, Curt Howland wrote:
>
>2.5GB FAT32 Primary Boot
>1.6GB Linux Native Boot
>100MB Linux Swap
>100MB FAT32 Logical
>
>Debian installed fine, no problems.
>
>Putting in the Win95 CD and floppy, I started to format
>the C: partition.
>
>HOWEVER: Format reported 3.9GB of C: drive. This is very
>wrong. MS fdisk (on the floppy, yes I've done this sort of
>thing before) reports the correct sized partition of 2.5GB.
>
>Did I do this in the wrong order? Should I have used MS fdisk
>first, to create the partitions, then Debian fdisk to redefine
>as the correct partition types?
The problem is likely to be the dangerously broken MS format program -
I've seen this before. It reads the previous format from the disk and
believes the capacity it reports, even if you have shrunk the
partition since. Boot into Debian and blat that partition - dd over
it, or mke2fs it. Then format under DOS/Win will do the correct thing.
<RANT> I still can't believe how bad Micro$oft's system tools are by
default. The best thing to do with fdisk.exe, for example, is delete
it before you're tempted to use it and break your partition
table. </RANT>
--
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. stevem@chiark.greenend.org.uk
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