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

Emeric Maschino wrote:

> 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!

Weird, but I don't have an explanation. Personally, I don't trust
Windows and parted that much... What is Linux fdisk saying?

> 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.

> What can cause this change in HDD type?

The Linux installer will ask you where to put the boot loader. Default
is, I think, the MBR of the first disk. Windows will install its boot
loader always on the MBR of the first disk without asking at all. So if
you decided to have the Linux boot manager reside on /dev/sda that will
change the Windows disk.

Best regards,
Martin Stricker
-- 
Homepage: http://www.martin-stricker.de/
Linux Migration Project: http://www.linux-migration.org/
Red Hat Linux 9 for low memory: http://www.rule-project.org/
Registered Linux user #210635: http://counter.li.org/


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