[ale] Partition table wet (not completely hosed)

No one in particular gt7783b at prism.gatech.edu
Thu Apr 4 18:55:04 EST 1996


Somehow in the process of upgrading from a 386sx20 to a 486dx2/66 VLB, I've
manage to worry my partition table.  Lilo hangs at LI because the partition
table has problems.  I can boot off a LILO floppy, but I worry that having
my partition table in a mess is a messy crash waiting to happen.  Is there
any way I can fix this without scrapping everything and starting completely
over?

I think the only problem is the line
Disk /dev/hda: 32 heads, 63 sectors, 825 cylinders

The disk is 16 heads, 63 sectors, and 1651 cylinders.  I think the business
with 825 cylinders and 32 heads came from an autodetect sequence run by the 
BIOS.  I've corrected the BIOS to the proper values (which are exactly the 
same as I was running before the upgrade) but fdisk is still reading the 
incorrect values.  Is there any way I can correct the partition table to the 
proper values so I can reinstall LILO and not live in fear of a crash?

Here's the output of fdisk: 

Disk /dev/hda: 32 heads, 63 sectors, 825 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2016 * 512 bytes

   Device Boot  Begin   Start     End  Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *       1       1     254  256000+   6  DOS 16-bit >=32M
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(507, 15, 63) logical=(253, 31, 63)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary:
     phys=(507, 15, 63) should be (507, 31, 63)
/dev/hda2         509     255     271   16632   82  Linux swap
Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(508, 0, 1) logical=(254, 0, 1)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(540, 15, 63) logical=(270, 15, 63)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary:
     phys=(540, 15, 63) should be (540, 31, 63)
/dev/hda3         542     271     322   51408   83  Linux native
Partition 3 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(541, 0, 1) logical=(270, 16, 1)
Partition 3 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(642, 15, 63) logical=(321, 15, 63)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary:
     phys=(642, 15, 63) should be (642, 31, 63)
/dev/hda4         644     322     826  508032   83  Linux native
Partition 4 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(643, 0, 1) logical=(321, 16, 1)
Partition 4 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(1023, 15, 63) logical=(825, 15, 63)
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary:
     phys=(1023, 15, 63) should be (1023, 31, 63)

Disk /dev/hdb: 14 heads, 17 sectors, 1024 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 238 * 512 bytes

   Device Boot  Begin   Start     End  Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1   *       1       1     998  118696+   6  DOS 16-bit >=32M
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(0, 1, 1) logical=(0, 2, 6)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(760, 7, 39) logical=(997, 8, 10)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary:
     phys=(760, 7, 39) should be (760, 13, 17)






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