Help required on Master Boot Record , FAT , NTFS , ext2

Hi friends, I am Rock , 16 years old. My ambition is to learn as much as I could in tech field.I hope you ppl will solve my problem.

Recently,during my summer break, I was getting bored so I thought why not pass-time and play around with LINUX.I decided to figure about whats so great about it and just wanted to get comfortable with it.

So, I installed "RedHat 7.2" and I was pretty comfortable w/ it ( Though it was of no use to me).

Now, I got myself "Mandrake LINUX" and I heard people talking that its more easier and comfortable to use , if u are shifting from windows to LINUX.So, I tried installing it and here I got stuck,coz i donno much about partition table,MBR,blah..blah..therefore I am not able to run them smoothly,though I have many tools to set them to work,but, I wanna learn about disk structure,boot records,partition records,etc,etc.

Please provide this bit of info abt such topic to help us newbies.

Umm, I have seen books over 1000 pages long that talk about disk structure, boot records, etc. Can you bee a little more specific?

If you're talking about running Windows and Linux on the same maching start here:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...ws+linux+howto

Here's AntiOnline's very own dual boot tutorial written by xmadness. It's well worth a read.


Just on a side not, you say you've already installed RH 7.2 but it was of "no use to you"....If that's the case than shouldn't you already be familiar with partitioning and the MBR?

Only if he actually did some partitioning. The redhat instal now has an option to let the installer choose all of the partitioning stuff for you, so all you have to do is say... "OK, I have no idea what you just did, but if it works, it's ok with me." At least I'm pretty that's what the button text was.

Quote:

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"OK, I have no idea what you just did, but if it works, it's ok with me." At least I'm pretty that's what the button text was

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Lol

Yes, I did install both OS together ,but, then I was lucky,I had no idea what a mount point is , i just selected "/root" , "/home" , "swap" thts all.

But, then after I partitioned the 1st partition of my IInd HDD , then RedHat didn't run it said "Kernel 2.xxx...blah , blah...panic". Possibly you altered your MBR.
Now. what the hell...

heres a link that will help you clear up ypur drive and teach you a little while you do it
try the debug route its fun!

First, read this short intro to the PC boot proces.

http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=192032

The Master Boot Record, (MBR) is the first physical sector
on a hard disk.
It contains two items. The first part of the sector contains
executable machine instructions (a program) that finds
and loads the Operating System Kernel into memory.

The second part of the sector has four data fields that define
the partitions on the disk. Each field has space for numbers that
give the starting and ending points of the partitions by 1.
Cylinder (or track) number. 2. Head (or side) number.
and 3. Sector number.

Since there are only four data fields, you can only define
four partitions in the MBR.
The fields also have a byte that is used to define what
type of partition it is, (FAT16, FAT32 etc)
This byte can also be used to label a partition as extended

The extended partition field has a pointer to another copy
of the MBR somewhere else on the disk.
This extended partition table contains four more data
fields, so you can define more partitions.
These partitions are usually called logical partitions.

You can "nest" additional extended partitions within
extended partitions to make as many partitions as you need.

The four fields in the MBR are special though, and are a
scarce resource.
The partitions defined in the MBR are called primary
partitions. Some Operating systems normally insist on
being installed in a primary partition.

When you install Windows 9x, or any earlier version,
you have the opportunity to partition your hard disk
with a program called FDISK.
FDISK will let you use the entire disk as one
primary partition, or you can make additional partitions.

When you make multiple partitions with Windows,
FDISK will always make one primary partition, and one
extended partition, with logical partitions contained
therein. Windows (or MS-DOS) will not create more than
one primary partition.

LINUX also has a program called FDISK, and it performs
the same function, but has greater capabilities.
It can create more than one primary partition.
It can also label the partitions for whatever file systems
you choose.

The standard boot loader code in your MBR, on a normal
Windows installation, looks at the partition table for a flag byte
that identifies a partition as bootable (or active).
Windows or msdos will refuse to boot if there is no
active partition, or if more than one partition is marked
as active.

Therefore, the standard boot loader is a single OS
dedicated boot loader and must be modified or replaced if
you want to be able to install more than one OS
on the computer.
:cool:

Thanks rcgreen & seeker ...that helped a lot !

thanks rcgreen, I read 'em both... very informative...