[KLUG Members] partition question

[greenproc]

Eric Beversluis wrote:
> When I installed XP on my Sony dual boot I created one partition/drive
> in NTFS. I created another that I wanted to format later as FAT32 for
> passing files between XP and Linux.
> 
> Then when I installed Fedora I let it automatically set up the
> partitions. What's confusing is that now when I look at 'My Computer' in
> XP it sees three partitions

*Use 'Disk Management'*  -- Right click 'My Computer' -> Manage.  In the
 console tree on the left, select 'Disk Management'.  This will give you
more of the information needed.  Compare that to what you see in
'Logical Drives' within the same console tree on the left.

, C: (which is formatted NTFS) and D: and G:,
> neither of them being formatted. I would think I should only see the D:
> partitions. My problem is that I don't know which I should format as
> FAT32 and whether, say, the G: drive actually includes some of the Linux
> stuff.
> 
> 'fdisk -l' on Linux gives this printout:
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/hda1   *           1        1785    14337981    7  HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/hda2            1786        4864    24732067+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
> /dev/hda5            1786        2295     4096543+   e  W95 FAT16 (LBA)
> /dev/hda6            2296        2308      104391   83  Linux
> /dev/hda7            2309        4864    20531038+  8e  Linux LVM
> 
> And mount ->
> [root at sonyc ~]# mount
> /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00 on / type ext3 (rw)
> /dev/proc on /proc type proc (rw)
> /dev/sys on /sys type sysfs (rw)
> /dev/devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
> /dev/hda6 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
> /dev/shm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
> none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
> sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
> automount(pid2440) on /misc type autofs
> (rw,fd=4,pgrp=2440,minproto=2,maxproto=4)
> automount(pid2490) on /net type autofs
> (rw,fd=4,pgrp=2490,minproto=2,maxproto=4)
> 
> (Side question: why doesn't 'mount' show hda7 (the main Linux partition)
> as mounted?)

It does show hda7 as mounted, but not directly.  hda7 is actually
mounted as the device '/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00' - which is LVM.

> 
> I believe that hda2 includes hda5,6,7.

Me too!  hda1 is the first primary partition, hda2 is the second primary
partition (of type 'DOS Extended').  I'm thinking that hda1 thru hda4
are reserved for "primary" partitions, leaving hda5 as the first within
hda2.

So, in windows your first primary is C, your first "logical drive
'/dev/hda5'" should be D (FAT16) -- but it is not, thanks to your first
CD/DVD device probably being D?

It would help to let us know how many CD/DVD drives are present, and
what drive letter assignments they have according to XP.  Again, use
disk management within XP for more information.

 Is there any way to figure out
> which corresponds to D: and to G: in XP's way of thinking? I guess I'm
> worried that maybe XP thinks hda2 is D: and hda5 is G:.

My gut feeling is that /dev/hda5 is E as far as windows is concerned,
but you do not yet have an "E".  Once you format it within XP's disk
management my guess is that it will be assigned drive letter E (you can
specify a different drive letter within disk management if you like).

> 
> Did I make a mistake in letting Fedora automatically set up the
> partitions? 

No.  It looks like it did everything properly.  In retrospect, things
could have been easier by setting up your FAT partition in XP, and also
formatting it within XP, before installing Fedora.

(I sure hope not, having spent about 4 days now getting this
> install in shape.) Maybe because the second partition I set up for XP
> wasn't formatted yet, Fedora handled it differently than I wanted?

How did you expect Fedora to handle the second partition you set up for
XP?  I think this is more of an issue with the FAT partition not being
formatted or assigned a drive letter as far as XP is concerned.  Also,
the same fat partition will not be "visible" to you in Fedora until you
assign it a mount point like: (add line to /etc/fstab)

/dev/hda5	/mnt/FAT	vfat	rw,users,auto	0 0

 -- of course /mnt/FAT is just the mount point which you would create
with mkdir.  It can be just about anything like "/mnt/Winders" or "/DOS"
or even "/media/somestupid_path"

Hope that helps.

> 
> EB
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