Re: Windows multiboot (aaargh!)
On Sat, 27 Sep 2003 03:44, Kevin McKinley wrote:
> On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 20:17:21 +1200
>
> cr <cr@orcon.net.nz> wrote:
> > Conclusions:
> >
> > 1. Back up the MBR and everything else, first!
> > 2. Be very, very careful when using 'map' to swap drives around
> > 3. It's probably safest to let DOS/Windows occupy Drive 1, where in its
> > blinkered arrogance it thinks it belongs. Linux can sit somewhere else.
>
> I'm glad you were able to unscrew your system, but methinks you got lucky.
>
> Having a backup of the MBR is nice but not necessary, and it probably isn't
> sufficient most of the time. What you really need is to be able to
> re-create all the partition tables, and if you use an extended partition
> not all that information will be in the MBR.
>
> To get a complete listing of partitions on all drives on your system do:
>
> fdisk -ul > partitions.030926
>
> which saves the output in a text file. Save that text file somewhere other
> than on the system you may need to restore (such as a floppy or USB memory
> device).
>
> Should you need to recreate your partition table you can do so using fdisk
> (not cfdisk and certainly not parted).
>
> Kevin
Thanks for the advice, I've saved it in my 'Linux' mail directory just for
reference. And yes, I think I did get lucky.
(As it happens, I've just done a complete reinstall - not because of that,
but because some hideous bug - don't know if it was a software thing, or a
virus in my Windows partition (haven't had time to check yet), or a hardware
fault - caused my system to switch off without warning, several times.
After which my X configuration was quite severely munged for no reason I
could figure out - it wasn't XF86config, which was unchanged. But at least
I was able to save all my mail etc to a backup before I reinstalled.)
cr
Reply to: