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File System Errors w/ NT and Linux
Jim asks: "I'm having severe problems with my Linux file system. I have a 6gb HD with a 1gb fat partition containing Windoze 95, a 2.5gb NTFS partition with NT workstation, and a 2.5gb partition containing Linux. I use NT's boot loader. I used the directions in the HOWTO docs to create a file from the Linux boot sector so I can load that with NT's boot loader.
The problem is, as I switch back and forth between NT and Linux, I encounter severe file system corruption in Linux, and minor corruption in NT. I've already run a surface scan on the drive and no physical defects were detected. I was told by a colleague that Windows NT does not respect partition boundaries as well as it should and is corrupting the Linux partition. Does anyone know if this is true? If so, does anyone have a solution? Does anyone have an alternate explanation, or better yet: a solution?"
Have you tried to use bootpart: this tool creates a default boot-sector for the NT-bootmanager. I have used a dual-boot like that for a while without problems. Perhaps by changing the booting method you can rule that out as part of the problem,
I run two NT-Linux multiboot machines. I prefer lilo as the primary boot manager. I wonder if the partition type (primary/logical) that NT is installed under could affect things. I personally haven't had corruption due to the multiple OS's.
If you have 2 IDE controlers (SCSI better still), use more than 1 hard disk. Costs money. Worth it. I use LILO (works great in this setup), although you could easily use the BIOS to select which drive you want to use as boot disk. Works for me. Now I don't have to pray for my disks as much. This may just be the Right Way to do this kind of thing. What's more, you can use a third HD for your Linux or unix swap. Might reduce overall disk latency.
I wouldn't recommend going with GAG if you are trying to debug a disk problem. GUIs are great and all, and it would be sweet if a new product was bug free, but I would go with a well tested program such as lilo. You want to rule out possibilities for the causes of the corruption. I recommend switching from the NT loader to lilo.
I would guess that it's not the NT loader at all, but other information that you haven't told us, such as are you mounting your NT partitions and running file access there (such as via locatedb)? I would not mount any non-ext2 partitions in linux until you discover the causes of the corruption.
--sam
--sam
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
Try GAG, is an excelent GPL'ed graphical boot manager, we use it to succesfully dualboot WinNT/Linux.
-------------------------------------------- Se você consegue ler aqui então fala português. Óbvio
I've dual booted NT 4 (and NT 2000) with Linux on several systems and never had corruption. So this is NOT normal behavior. Changing your boot loader (instead of using NT's boot loader or LILO) will probably not help. I usually use NT's boot loader for dual booting, because it's the easiest way to get both OS's set up.
On of the previous posters mentioned checking that both OS's are using the same address system on your HD. (LBA vers Cylinders, Heads, Sectors, etc)
This is a fantastic recommendation, and I wish I know how to check for certain what each OS is doing.
Another possibility is that your hard drive is failing. I know this is not something you *wanted* to hear, but it is possible. I once had a hard drive start exhibiting behavior very much like you are describing shortly after I installed OS/2 2.0 on one of my partitions. For a while I was certain that dual booting with OS/2 was my problem. I deleted my OS/2 partition, and about a week later the HD died completely. The moral of the story.... Sometimes HD's die *very* slowly and start out by doing wierd things that corrupt your filesystems.
I read somewhere that NT stores a copy of the partition table, or the MBR (can't remember which), both at the physical beginning and physical middle of the disk.
I can't rememeber, however, if it just plops it down in the middle of whatever partition is there, or if it instead stores its stuff at the logical middle of the NT system partition....just thought this might jog someone's memory.
NT and Linux might not be using the same type of drive access.. LBA vs CHS.
/most/ of the time, but you will experience random, bizarre corruption, as you are. It can happen even with one OS if you switch machines or BIOSes.
/both/ OSes are respecting the way it's laid out. On large (>8 gig) drives, either OS will sometimes use LBA regardless of the BIOS (>2 gig /should/ use LBA). You may need to reinstall one OS or the other (or both).
LBA turns the hard drive into sequential blocks, 0..(some huge number).
In CHS, you specify [C]ylinder, [H]ead, [S]ector (like 1024,16,63).
If NT and Linux are using different schemes, it'll work
Check your BIOS to see which way it is (386's usually CHS, P5+ usually LBA), then make sure
Preferable option is to use separate drives for each OS, but I realize this is not always an option.