Re: Beware: Installation of "Red Hat-based" Linux distributions corruptWindows HDD!

> This usually means a driver problem - if the filesystem was damaged you
> usually won't come that far. So let's look at the hardware first. Did
> you change *anything* with the hardware after the last time your WinXP
> booted successfully? Linke upgrading the BIOS, installing a different
> mainboard, upgrading a firmware, installing another SCSI (maybe even any
> other card if it changes the interrupt) or installing/changing a
> harddrive? If so, undo any changes (get the computer into the state when
> it booted WinXP successfully) and retry booting WinXP. If it still
> fails, do a hardware check on the WinXP drive - it's unlikely but
> possible that you got harddisk damage.

No, I didn't change anything at the hardware level, even nothing in the
BIOS setup. See below.


> Which of the two did you try first, or did you try on different
> machines? Did it detect or even mount your WinXP filesystem (NTFS I
> guess?)? There is a reason why Red Hat doesn't enable NTFS support -
> it's still dangerous, especially if you mount read-write. I don't think
> Taroon beta 2 had NTFS support, so I'm wondering if you tried it on a
> new machine or if you just see the problem as created by White Box
> Linux. Could you also try again with RHL7.1 or RHL7.2 on a new (or newly
> installed) machine to find out if they relly don't show this behavior?
> For me, based on the information you have supplied, this looks like a
> hardware conflict or WinXP driver problem.

Since Windows can only be installed on the first HDD, I installed it on
/dev/sda. You're right, NTFS support is disabled in the default kernel
I'm using for the installation process. But here's the story.

I started clean by low-level formatting the first HDD. Then I inserted
the Windows installation CD-ROM. The low-level formatted HDD is
correctly detected as type [Raw] but I noticed that the HDD containing
Linux is seen as a MBR type and not GPT. Strange, because I'm pretty
sure Red Hat-based Linux distributions use the GPT standard. I left that
for the moment. OK, Windows installation finished. I inserted the
Windows installation CD-ROM again, just to check the created partitions:
GPT type, OK. Now booting the current installed White Box Linux. Here's
the surprise: parted sees both /dev/sda and /dev/sdb as GPT disk type.
So, the Windows installation program and parted don't agree for the type
of the second HDD (containing Linux)! To be sure, I low-level formatted
the second HDD and installed RH7.1. parted still sees /dev/sda and
/dev/sdb as GPT, and the Windows installation program still sees only
the first HDD as GPT! Installing White Box Linux on the second HDD (thus
completely erasing RH7.1) succeeded without altering the Windows disk
this time. Huh? I then decided to give Taroon Beta 2 a new try. Argh! 
My Windows HDD has been corrupted during the installation process!
Booting with the fresh installed Taroon, parted still sees /dev/sda and
/dev/sdb as GPT HDDs, but when rebooting from the Windows installation
CD-ROM, the first HDD is now seen as MBR type, no more GPT!. Something
has switched it from GPT to MBR during the Taroon installation process
but from the parted point of view, everything is fine! I must be sure of
that, so I reinstalled Windows again on the first HDD and then Taroon on
the second. But this time, everything ran fine. Well... It seems that,
somethimes during the Linux installation process, something is switching
my Windows HDD from GPT to MBR type. But parted still sees both /dev/sda
and /dev/sdb as GPT although the Windows installation program only sees
the first HDD as GPT. Just to be clear, the edd30 variable was set
accordingly to each OS.

What can cause this change in HDD type?


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