Hi,

This is a problem with Windows, but it came about from using fdisk on a
Linux system. I was wondering if you guys had any insight on the
matter.

I've put together a system with a 400GB hard drive and partitioned the
disk as follows:

Disk /dev/hda: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 48641 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 2048 16450528+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

I installed Windows 2000, and the system works fine. However, my
Windows system fails to boot after simply adding another partition:

/dev/hda4 3000 48641 366619365 83 Linux

As the system boots up, I get an error on a blue screen that reads:

***STOP 0x0000007B . . .
INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

The system boots fine again after I remove hda4.

I want to be able to put other partitions on this disk. Anybody have
any idea what the issue is and whether there's a solution? Is the
problem the size of the hard disk?

Alan

Alan Lue wrote:
> Hi,
>
> This is a problem with Windows, but it came about from using fdisk on a
> Linux system. I was wondering if you guys had any insight on the
> matter.
>
> I've put together a system with a 400GB hard drive and partitioned the
> disk as follows:
>
> Disk /dev/hda: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 48641 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/hda1 * 1 2048 16450528+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
>
> I installed Windows 2000, and the system works fine. However, my
> Windows system fails to boot after simply adding another partition:
>
> /dev/hda4 3000 48641 366619365 83 Linux
>
> As the system boots up, I get an error on a blue screen that reads:
>
> ***STOP 0x0000007B . . .
> INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
>
> The system boots fine again after I remove hda4.
>
> I want to be able to put other partitions on this disk. Anybody have
> any idea what the issue is and whether there's a solution? Is the
> problem the size of the hard disk?
>
> Alan
>

Have a look at the disk with the W2000 tools (IIRC, Disk Manager).
Check the total disk size seen by it.

Check if the problem exists if you create an extended partition
with the W2000 tools. You can the create /dev/hda5 (with fdisk)
inside the extended partition. Linux will go happily into a logical
disk inside an extended partition.

--

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi

I tried moving the Linux partition into an extended partition instead,
but I continued to get the same error.

I couldn't locate the disk tool you're talking about, Tauno. Instead I
decided to try and reinstall Windows with a different partition setup
and noticed that the installer saw the disk (400GB) as having only
about 130GB. I found a page on LBA support from Microsoft's support
site:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305098/EN-US/

and it provided the solution to my problem. I turned on 48-bit LBA
support for ATAPI disks, and Windows now boots without error.

Without 48-bit LBA support, Windows must have identified some kind of
error when it recognized that the disk had partitions beyond a certain
storage limit. According to both the Microsoft support article and
this Seagate technical paper:

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/tp/137gb.pdf

that limit is 137GB.

Thanks for your help!

Alan

Alan Lue wrote:
> I tried moving the Linux partition into an extended partition instead,
> but I continued to get the same error.
>
> I couldn't locate the disk tool you're talking about, Tauno. Instead I
> decided to try and reinstall Windows with a different partition setup
> and noticed that the installer saw the disk (400GB) as having only
> about 130GB. I found a page on LBA support from Microsoft's support
> site:
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305098/EN-US/
>
> and it provided the solution to my problem. I turned on 48-bit LBA
> support for ATAPI disks, and Windows now boots without error.

Do you run a DOS-based version of Windows (Win 3.11, W95 W98 ME) or
a NT -based one (NT, W2000, XP)?

Sorry, I was thinking of the NT family disk manager which
is used instead of fdisk in those Windowses.

> Without 48-bit LBA support, Windows must have identified some kind of
> error when it recognized that the disk had partitions beyond a certain
> storage limit. According to both the Microsoft support article and
> this Seagate technical paper:
>
> http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/tp/137gb.pdf
>
> that limit is 137GB.
>
> Thanks for your help!

Thank you for the positive feedback. It keeps the
response engine running.

--

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi