No Sectors left of 120GB Drive

[R. G. Newbury]

Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2006 03:02:53 -0700 From: "jdow" <jdow at earthlink.net> 
Subject: Re: No Sectors left of 120GB Drive

 >> > >In an abstract sense I'd love to know what limits a disk to only one
 >> > >extended partition other than legacy and sloppy code.

 > the answer is that:
 >
 > > I have no idea if the linux-based equivalent tools work the same way,
 > > but I strongly suspect they do due to the very nature of the beast.
 > > Backup the table first and backup your data.

 >I've violated every one of those bullets quite successfully with
 >various versions of Linux and Windows over the years with the singular
 >and obvious exception of item A.
<snip>
 >And as noted above there is no GOOD reason that the various
 >limitations in the latest fdisk software exists other than the limited
 >minds of the current developers. They have the arrogance to presume
 >nobody needs to go outside their little mental box.

My comments were made in the context of OS/2,Windows and Linux. OS/2 
will not accept primary partitions after an extended partition. I don't 
know if it will accept an extended inside an extended: I think it might. 
And it barfs on logical partitions which jump 'backwards' in the china. 
  I don't know the situation for Linux, never having *had to* explore 
that. On reflection, I have learnt my lesson and always make my 
partitions in order... Windows does not mind 'backward' partition jumps.
Not sure you are correct that there is no good reason, but there may 
well be reasons which are... not great...

 > Sometimes people
 >do have to go outside the tight little mental boxes of people like
 >the fdisk developers. They SHOULD have a switch that says, "I know
 >damn well what I am doing and take responsibility for any data carnage
 >that I produce with my silliness or oddball needs." Then it should
 >allow anything the descriptors can describe unambiguously as long as
 >no lethal overlaps exist.)

{^_^}   Joanne, who has wanted a piece of the fdisk developer's hides
         for several years now. I fondly remember the 5.0 fdisk that
         was sane.

Try DFSEE  (at dfess.com). This program does basically everything that 
fdisk, mkfs, partition magic, partinfo and partedit can do. albeit 
without the pretty gui. It will allow you to do *anything* that you want 
to the disk inluding byte editing in place. It is even available in a 
version on a LiveCD for recovery purposes. NOT EASY TO USE BUT POWERFUL. 
Not free but may be worth the money. The free demo version allows you to 
explore your disk and may be all you need in some cases.

My pet peeve is the games some developers play: partinfo reports your 
drive structure in sectors from 0 throughout but partedit requires 
sector numbers *relative to the beginning of the extended 
partition*....or the other way round... in any event, you have to keep 
your calculator handy.. oh joy!

-- 
              R. Geoffrey Newbury			
           newbury at mandamus.org

        Helping with the HTTP issue
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