re: invalid partition table
Matt Hamilton writes:
>#1: I can't tell you exactly what happened, but I can tell you how to fix
>it. Slip out a bootable windows95 diskette so you can get to your
>windows95 partition, then run 'FDISK /MBR'. That will restore your master
>boot record. I'm assuming it's your master boot record that win95 doesn't
>like.
Um, unless I've grossly misunderstood the world, that'll not touch the
partition table at all. Sounds more likely that FIPS has left the
partition table in a state that Linux can manage but Win95 can't.
Don't suppose you have a backup of your old partition table?
(I've really no idea how reliable FIPS is, but changing partitioning
while leaving data untouched is a sufficiently hairy idea that I'd
point the finger in that sort of direction. Maybe Win95 can't cope
with things being moved around under its feet. Don't know.)
See if you can mount the DOS/Win95/whatever partition(s) from Linux
(doing it readonly might be a good move if the disc is in a bad
state).
Use Linux's fdisk and see what it thinks the partition table is. You
may even be able to use it to do some repair work though my personal
reaction would be to get all the data you can off and start from
scratch.
[..]
>#2: xdm on bootup? You fool! Just kidding. 8^) When X comes up, you
>can first try <ctrl>-<alt>-<+> to see if it will bring up any of the
>resolutions. the control-alt-plus combination is to switch between video
>modes while you're running X. If that doesn't work, you can take X down by
>hitting <ctrl>-<alt>-<backspace>.
CTRL-ALT-F1 will get you a text mode screen with less fuss.
>>We have a pentium box here that runs windoze95. To install debian,
>>I partioned the disk using fips. When debian loaded, I prepared
>>a swap partition and a linux partiion on as /dev/hda2 and /dev/hda3 using
>>the custom mode installation. The we installed the packages. X loads
>>with a garbeled sceen and no mouse reaction, and since xdm is run at
>>boot time, I am not sure how to stop. I consolated my colleague by
>>claiming that windoze95 would still be there. We removed the debian
>>boot disk, rebooted. The floppy is installed, then comes a message:
>>
>>Invalid partition table
>>
>>and windows stops.
>>
>>How could this happen? Note that linux still boots, but I can
>>not do anything with it because of this xdm problem. Any way that
>>I can rectify the partition table problem?
--
Richard Kettlewell richard@uk.geeks.org http://www.elmail.co.uk/staff/richard/
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