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> > This is the point: Your HD has a probability of being misrecognized by the
> > BIOS.
> >
> >
> > > My much newer 100GB HD works badly on two computers, including the one
> > > where I partitioned it, so I think it is a HD problem.  But maybe DOS is
> > > confused by 100GB.  All of the linux partitions act normally.

I zeroed out the entire drive with a Seagate/Maxtor hard disk utility on 
the Ultimate Boot CD, and repartitioned with BL3 fdisk and mke2fs and DOS 
format.  sys'ed it.  It still acts the same as when I used PQMAGIC. 
Won't boot (I can boot to floppy disk and cd to it) on two computers.
I think yesterday it was booting on the third computer (but D: and E: were 
full of gibberish).

Several other drives boot on both of them, but one 10GB Maxtor will boot 
on one and not on the other and PQMagic is happy with it on one computer 
(where linux and DOS work but XP and Win98 both crash quickly) and not on 
the other (error message about partitions and drive geometry). An 8GB WDC 
with Easy-Drive won't boot and the other needed the partitions redone 
before it would boot.  This stuff was all free.

Linux won't mount the two logical DOS partitions that fdisk made.  If I 
copy files to those partitions via DOS laplink pro, they turn into 
gibberish.  The programs in C: work so I will enlarge C: and put all my 
DOS programs in it.

Linux works fine once I boot to it from DOS.  LILO stops at LI
when booting from lilo on floppy disk.  I doubt it would work from MBR.

The solution is to boot from DOS floppy disk to DOS, and then with loadlin 
to linux.  I can't use this drive in the ECS computer where loadlin stops 
the linux keyboard from working.  Is there some other way to boot from DOS 
to linux?

Any idea why linux behaves so much better than DOS in logical partitions?

Sindi

> > Fdisk. cfdisk, qparted, etc. are unable to handle this kind of viruses.
> > They modify the MBR "conveniently" and everything seems to be Ok.
> >
> > If the system doesn't show you a "track zero" error, and assuming that your
> > motherboard is not so old, try the following:
> > Use  'debug'  from DOS (it also can be found on the Windows 98 rescue floppy
> > disk)
> > in the spite of  "breaking" any partition at all, and then start it from
> > scratch.
> > It's a low-level modification, so be adviced that this process makes your
> > data to be lost.
> > It covers the MBR with spaces (character 20 ASCII)

I used the Maxtor utility.  I think the partition table area is worn out.

> To erase (overwrite with zeros) the MBR I can also
> dd if=/dev/zero  of=/dev/hda  bs=512  count=1
> Would this be just as good?  Can I then repartition and reformat?
> Should I overwrite more than this in case the virus is hiding some place
> else?
>
>
> > After typing   debug <enter> enter the following values:
> Might this do permanent damage to the MBR if I do it wrong?
>
> > -F  200  L1000  0
> > -A  CS:100
> > xxxx : 0100  MOV  AX,301
> > xxxx : 0103  MOV  BX,200
> > xxxx : 0106  MOV  CX,1
> > xxxx : 0109  MOV  DX,80
> > xxxx : 010C  INT  13
> > xxxx : 010E  INT  20
> > xxxx : 0110
> > -G
> > -Q
> >
> > Notes: the "xxxx: 01xx"s are provided by 'debug';
> > At 0110 just type <enter> with no information.
> > When G is entered, the system says the program was ended normally;
> > (If not, just retype the information)
> > Q is for "quit".
> >
> > (DX,80 is for the first HD and DX,81 for the second.
> > But I never use a second HD while doing this).
> >
> > Having done this, you'll have a "brand new" HD what is to say you have
> > to partition, format, mount, etc.
>
> I have practice doing that.  Nothing important on the drive.
>
> I found a site warning against using FDISK/MBR, which can cause more
> problems than it cures.
>
> Would spinrite be adequate to determine if the drive is simply worn out?
>
> > I hope it works for you.
> >
> > Teixeira
> >
> >
> >
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> keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
> SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org
>
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keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
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