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<TITLE>The Answer Guy 52: Can't Format "Network" Drive to do Install</TITLE>
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<H4>"The Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"</H4>
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<H4>By James T. Dennis,
<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a><BR>
LinuxCare,
<A HREF="http://www.linuxcare.com/">http://www.linuxcare.com/</A>
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<H3 align="left"><img src="../../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
>Can't Format "Network" Drive to do Install</H3>
<p><strong>From C C on Thu, 23 Mar 2000
</strong></p>
<!-- ::
Can't Format "Network" Drive to do Install
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:: -->
<P><STRONG>
I have 2 hd,s. One windows 95 and 1 linux mandrake 6.0 using lilo to
access which system i want to use. linux has disappeared along with
lilo at dos bootup. my system still lists 2 hard drives. i am trying to
format my linux drive and reinstall it but dos says i cannot format my d
drive because it is a network drive? I'm lost . I am not connected to a
network. Any suggestions?
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thanks for any help,
<br>Mr Grant
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Do you have two physical hard drives, or two partitions (drive
"letters")? IDE or SCSI? One interface/cable --- or two
(different cables)?
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Where does your system still lists two hard drives? In the CMOS
setup? Using some sort of GUI filemanager? In <TT>FDISK.EXE?</TT>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
What are you using attempt to format these drives? Command line
utility? GUI tool? MS or some 3rd party, like Norton?
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Why are you using any sort of MS DOS/Windows formatter to attempt
preparation of a filesystem for installing Linux? What if you
boot up a Linux installation utility and see what it says? (In
particular, what does the Mandrake version of fdisk say about
<TT>/dev/hda</TT> and <TT>/dev/hdb</TT> or <TT>/dev/hdc</TT>)? (Those device names are
conventional for IDE drives; <TT>/dev/sda</TT>, <TT>/dev/sdb</TT>, etc are common
for SCSI drives).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
What do you mean "disappeared" and "along with lilo"? Do you
mean that LILO used to work and now you don't see any LILO
prompt or messages when you power up the system?
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
At a guess it sounds like some Microsoft upgrade, patch or
utility that you installed or ran overwrote your MBR (master
boot record) code and/or partition table. The MBR is the first
accessible sector on a hard disk. The MBR on the first hard disk
in a system hold's the system's boot code or "boot loader."
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
This is a very small bit executable code (usually written in
assembly language --- less than 466 bytes long) which finds,
loads and executes the rest of any operating system. Every
operating system comes with its own boot loader, but many
boot loaders can be configured to load multiple different
operating systems. Linux offers a number of different boot
loaders --- LILO is the most common one on the PC. Another
would be GRUB (the GNU "grand unified boot loader").
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Microsoft's boot loader isn't very flexible nor it is at
all smart. It simply looks for the "active" partition, loads
the first sector of that (the logical boot record) and executes
whatever is there). Usually this is a secondary boot loader
for DOS or Win '9x. Often it is a virus (a traditional boot
sector virus --- not a new-fangled multi-partite MBR infector!).
Sometimes that might be a copy of their "Boot Manager" ---
from OS/2, later NT. "Boot Manager" is a fairly fat secondary
boot loader, it takes up a small partition of its own (minimum
1 Meg.? --- my whole kernel image fits that).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Microsft OS products and utilities have an ongoing and egregious
predilection for overwriting the boot loaders (sometimes even
the partitions) of other operating systems. One might think they
they didn't what you installing anything else on <EM>THEIR</EM> systems.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The good news is that you data and filesystems are probably still
there. If you get a technically inclined friend to visit you (or
call a commercial support line, like the one I work for) to show
you how to run fdisk (the Linux version) and how to interpret it's
listings then we might be able to "rescue" your Linux files and
settings. Even if the partition table was overwritten it is
likely that the filesystem(s) is/are still there in portions of
the disk(s) that appear to be "unused" (as far as DOS/Win '9x is
concerned).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
There is a tool called "gpart" which can scan a disk looking for
partition signatures, which can often help rebuild a damaged or
lost partition table. This is a fairly advanced trick; something
I don't have time to write up again here. I've described it
before --- though even then it might entail a bit too much
background explanation for you at this point.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Of course, if you don't have any data or settings on the "missing"
copy of Linux that you're interested in recovering, then it will
be much easier and cheaper for you to simply re-install Linux.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I presume that you got it installed before. If someone else did
it for you --- have them come back and show you how (or just give
it a go on your own. The Mandrake and Macmillan manuals aren't
too scary).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
After you've either recovered or re-installed your Linux system,
remember to create a boot/rescue disk for it. Also create a small
file (recover.mbr) using a command like:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<blockquote><pre>dd count=1 bs=512 if=/dev/hda of=/tmp/recover.mbr
</pre></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
... this will create a small (512 byte) file in your <TT>/tmp</TT> that
you can copy onto your boot/rescue floppy. That way, the next
time this happens to you you can boot from your rescue floppy,
and using a command like:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<blockquote><pre>dd count=1 bs=512 of=/dev/hda if=/tmp/recover.mbr
</pre></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
(all I did was exchange the <tt>if=</tt> and <tt>of=</tt> parameters by
changing an i to an o and vice versa, that reverses the
direction of this "data dump" command making the input file
into the output file and vice versa).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
If you need to get a rescue floppy take a look at Tom's Root/Boot
(<A HREF="http://www.toms.net/rb/"
>http://www.toms.net/rb</A>) Not only does Tom Oehser provide the
coolest rescue floppy around, he also has links on his web site to
many other cool "floppy-based" Linux distributions. In addition,
if you get to a local Linux users group you might pick up a copy
of the <A HREF="http://www.linuxcare.com/">Linuxcare</A>
"bootable business card"
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<em><p>[ Or burn your own copy of it; you can download the .ISO image from
<a href="http://www.linuxcare.com/bootable_cd/"
>http://www.linuxcare.com/bootable_cd/</a>
</p><p>One possible advantage is, not every CD drive can play a mini-CD,
sometimes they don't even have enough plastic to hold one up.
</p><p>-- Heather ]</p></em>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
(The BBC is a business card sized CD-ROM "disc" which my employer
puts together to give away at trade shows and to donate to users
groups for their members and door prizes --- it has about 50Mb of
handy utilities) --- we're trying to clean the underlying sources
and make files enough to publish so others can build their own BBC
(you can already download the ISO image and burn it onto your ISO
image --- go to <A HREF="http://www.linuxcare.com/bootable_cd"
>http://www.linuxcare.com/bootable_cd</A> for more
info).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Hopefully that will help. If you can't wipe MS completely
off you hard drive, and you get those programmers in Redmond to
write well-behaved code that respects your other OS' on YOUR
computer --- at least you can get the tools to take control of
your PC (and learn how to use them).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<H3 align="left"><img src="../../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
>Where did it go</H3>
<p><strong>From A & C Costa on 24 Mar 00
</strong></p>
<p><strong>
Hey Guy,
<br>I really appreciate you taking the time to get back to me so fast. I will look
into your suggestions and will let you know how I make out.
<br>Thanks Again
</strong></p>
<p><strong>
Mr Grant
</strong></p>
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<H5 align="center"><a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
>Copyright ©</a> 2000, James T. Dennis
<BR>Published in <I>The Linux Gazette</I> Issue 52 April 2000</H5>
<H6 ALIGN="center">HTML transformation by
<A HREF="mailto:star@tuxtops.com">Heather Stern</a> of
Tuxtops, Inc.,
<A HREF="http://www.tuxtops.com/">http://www.tuxtops.com/</A>
</H6>
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