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unknown partition table



I constantly get "unknown partition table":

| rapunzel~# fdisk -l /dev/sdb 
| 
| Disk /dev/sdb: 18.2 GB, 18210037760 bytes
| 64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 17366 cylinders
| Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
| 
| Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table
| 
| rapunzel:~# fdisk /dev/sdb 
| Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
| Building a new sun disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
| until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous
| content won't be recoverable.
| 
| Drive type
|    ?   auto configure
|    0   custom (with hardware detected defaults)
| [snip, options skipped]
| Select type (? for auto, 0 for custom): 0
| Heads (1-1024, default 64): 20
| Sectors/track (1-1024, default 32): 237
| Cylinders (1-65535, default 17364): 7499
| Alternate cylinders (0-65535, default 2): 
| Using default value 2
| Physical cylinders (0-65535, default 7501): 
| Using default value 7501
| Rotation speed (rpm) (1-100000, default 5400): 7177
| Interleave factor (1-32, default 1): 
| Using default value 1
| Extra sectors per cylinder (0-237, default 0): 
| Using default value 0

Settings according to /dev/sda which is a SEAGATE-SX118273LC-6367
 
| Command (m for help): p
| 
| Disk /dev/sdb (Sun disk label): 20 heads, 237 sectors, 7499 cylinders
| Units = cylinders of 4740 * 512 bytes
| 
|    Device Flag    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
| /dev/sdb1             0      7478  17722860   83  Linux native
| /dev/sdb2  u       7478      7499     49770   82  Linux swap
| /dev/sdb3             0      7499  17772630    5  Whole disk
| 
| Command (m for help): x
| 
| Expert command (m for help): p
| 
| Disk /dev/sdb (Sun disk label): 20 heads, 237 sectors, 7177 rpm
| 7499 cylinders, 2 alternate cylinders, 7501 physical cylinders
| 0 extra sects/cyl, interleave 1:1
| Linux custom cyl 7499 alt 2 hd 20 sec 237
| Units = cylinders of 4740 * 512 bytes

Linux custom? Could this be the problem? 

|    Device Flag    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
| /dev/sdb1             0      7478  17722860   83  Linux native
| /dev/sdb2  u       7478      7499     49770   82  Linux swap
| /dev/sdb3             0      7499  17772630    5  Whole disk
| 
| Command (m for help): w
| The partition table has been altered!
| 
| Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
| Syncing disks.
| rapunzel:~# fdisk -l /dev/sdb 
| 
| Disk /dev/sdb: 18.2 GB, 18210037760 bytes
| 64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 17366 cylinders
| Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
| 
| Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

At the same time, the kernel says:
| SCSI device sdb: 35566480 512-byte hdwr sectors (18210 MB)
| SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write through
|  sdb: unknown partition table
Of course.

So, how do I fix this? copy over the SEAGATE-String from the 
first disk to the second by means of dd? Why can't I set that in 
fdisk? Is there a better fdisk? ;) 

Regards
Peter 
-- 
Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve 
neither liberty nor safety. -- Benjamin Franklin



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