Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Linux EMC computer

Crap !
Even the most brain dead installs call fdisk to carry out the partitioning
of a hard disk. A low level format is when bad blocks are detected and
marked. After running fdisk, formatting is mandatory on ANY file system be it
NTFS, FAT16, or EXT2. Even under expert mode, the BDI installs will still run
a formatting program.

As for not being able to access data beyond cylinder 1024 - Yes, older
versions of lilo had problems booting above this limit, but even on 20Gig
disks (and larger), most linux installs set up a /boot partition close to the
first cylinder. Even if the BIOS does not support larger drives, once linux
has begun booting, it is immaterial what size the disk is - The kernel
interogates the drive and ignores the BIOS completely.

If people post about a problem with any BDI install, the first question
should be "Which version" - Some of the BDI-Live releases have a bug in the
installer (show me a version of Windows that doesn't have any !).

Regards, Paul.

On Saturday 27 March 2004 1:29 pm, dakota8833 wrote:
> One problem you may be having is bad blocks on the hard drive. A
> standard BDI install does not check and record these on the
> drive(FDISK). You have to use the "manually partition" option to
> select "FDISK". Otherwise Linux may write data in bad areas of the
> drive. I have had problems from freezing up during the install to not
> being able to restart after a proper shutdown.

On Saturday 27 March 2004 4:32 am, Jon Elson wrote:
> Ah, yes. So the CD boots, the install goes, but in the end you don't
> have a system that will boot itself completely from the hard disk.
> That sounds WAY too familiar! And, LILO is not the most obvious
> in the way it works. If the boot track doesn't get put together right,
> or if a critical part of the kernel lays beyond cylinder 1024, it won't
> boot on many machines.