Large HDD installation prob

[linchick79]

Hi,
Needed some help...want to install Redhat 8.0 on on a Samsung HDD 40Gb :20 Gb for win98(already installed=c:=>10Gb,d:=>10Gb) and the rest for linux.I also recently flashed the BIOS to support LBA.

AT DISK PARTITIONS SETUP window:

I select:
Have The Installer Automatically Partition For You
And I get the error message :

"The Partition Table On /Tmp/Hda Is Inconsistent.There Are Many Reasons Why This Might Be The Case. Often, The Reason Is That Linux Detected The Bios Geometry Incorrectly. However, This Does Not Appear To Be The Case Here. It Is Safe To Ignore, But Ignoring May Cause (Fixable) Ploblems With Some Boot Loaders, And May Cause Problems With Fat File Systems. Using Lba Is Recommended"

It then gives me two option ignore and cancel, I press the ignore button

AT AUTOMATIC PARTITIONING window:

I choose: keep partitions and use existing free space
and installer give me the following message:

Could Not Allocate Requested Partitions:
Partitioning Failed: Could Not Allocate Partition
I press ok buttom

If I try using DISK DRUID /FDISK:

It lets me create new partitons i.e another 10Gb but doesnt let me partition da last 10Gb and this message appear again:

could not allocate requested partitions:
partitioning failed: could not allocate partition

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My guess is that it cant see beyond 32Gb...thou I did also chk the jumper settings on the HDD,set it to "see upper 32GB" MASTER.

any ideas?

[spyrul]

well, as a couple of notes, FAT32 cannot, in fact, have a partition more than 32GB.

as far as making the partitions, what kind of partition were you trying to make? primary, extended, or what? you can have up to four primary partitions, and one extended.

maybe you should try configuring the partitions manually at the beginning, rather than let the machine do it for you... we all know just how faulty these things can get.

otherwise, i haven't got that many ideas, sorry

[VictorKaum]

I suggest starting with a linux boot disk,
start the linux fdisk program (it's different from that used for M$ partitioning), I noticed that it handles the linux/unix part better but sometimes fails on the FAT part while the fdisk for M$ does exactly the opposite, anyway, be carefull with that linux fdisk! it's powerfull! (like all linux stuff)
Now you can view your partition table and add some partitions to your system. Note those down (eg where you locate boot, home, swap,... ) now save and exit the fdisk prog. restart and try to install on those freshly made partitions.

[linchick79]

alrite ,I use linux fdisk to partition and this is what i get :
Disk /tmp/hda :255 heads,63 sectors,4870 cylinders
Units=cylinders of 16065*512bytes

Device Start End System
/tmp/hda1 1 1218 Win95 Fat32(LBA)
/tmp/hda2 1219 2436 Win95 Ext'd(LBA)
/tmp/hda5 1219 2436 Win95 Fat32(LBA)

I noticed something really funny...it doesnt let me add a logical partition,I get an error ,"No free sectors available", but it lets me add more primary (linux)partitions.

I intend to make 2 primary partitions for linux and 1 logical swap.

Also, when I had initially installed M$,while partitioning with M$ fdisk,I chose the Large disk support, fdisk warned me that no other operating system wud be able to operate correctly ,but I chose to ignore it....cud this be da problem ?

Note:disk druid reported 4871 cylinders compared to fdisk's 4870.


wats goin on???

I have an Intel mobo D845HV,P4,1.7Ghz,40Gb,128MB RAM.

[rcgreen]

Device Start End System
/tmp/hda1 1 1218 Win95 Fat32(LBA)
/tmp/hda2 1219 2436 Win95 Ext'd(LBA)
/tmp/hda5 1219 2436 Win95 Fat32(LBA)

hda5 [b]is a logical partition, and it is using all of the available
space in the extended partition hda2.

It appears that this is all of the space you have. I don't know
if those units are cyls or something else.

If they are cyls, then it isn't seeing the whole disk, as you
suspected. It may be one of those cases where you have
to keep experimenting with BIOS settings until it sees your
drive correctly. You may have to wipe the partition table clean
and start from the beginning, unless you have a windows
system already installed that you don't want to wipe out.

It would also help if you knew the stated geometry from the
disk manufacturer. This way, you know if fdisk is seeing the
drive correctly

[problemchild]

it doesnt let me add a logical partition,I get an error ,"No free sectors available", but it lets me add more primary (linux)partitions

Some of this partitioning stuff can be tricky. First, a few basics of partitioning. A physical disk can only have 4 partitions, either primary or extended. Logical partitions are not real partitions and cannot exist by themselves. They can only exist as structures within an extended partition. Although you can only have 4 primary and extended partitions, you can have as many logical partitions inside an extended partition as you want.

In your setup, hda1 is primary. hda2 is the second (extended) partition and contains logical partition hda5. Since hda2 and hda5 are the same size, there is no more room in your extended partition. And you can't put a logical partition in the empty space because it has to be inside an extended partition. Basically, you have to create an extended before you can create a logical.

You have 2 options:
1) Get Partition Magic and stretch hda2 out so there is room in it after hda5; or
2) Create a new extended partition in your empty space which will be hda3, and then put several logical partition inside it which will be hda6, hda7, etc....

I intend to make 2 primary partitions for linux and 1 logical swap.

Can't do it like that, because then you would have more than 4 partitions on your disk.

Hope this helps.

PS - Just for future reference, this thread is in the wrong forum.