linux fdisk changed CHS, now Windows says "invalid media type"

[Svend Olaf Mikkelsen]

Fwiw, the BIOS on my computer gives me only the following 3 options
wrt the drive in question:

4868/255/63 (LBA)
19158/16/255 (NORMAL)
2394/128/255 (LARGE)

The LBA setting does not let me boot from the drive but allows me to
use it on IDE2 (which is what I am doing now).

From a previous message:

"You may be able to change the BIOS setting, so the disk is shown as
255 heads 63 sectors in Windows 98."

You cannot boot the disk, at least not using a standard Microsoft MBR,
since it has no active partition.

 

[student]

From a previous message:

"You may be able to change the BIOS setting, so the disk is shown as
255 heads 63 sectors in Windows 98."

Apropos what?

I believe I just said that those are the settings I am using now.

They also happen to be the same as the corresponding BPB settings.

[To do: When is the boot sector created and what creates it?]

You cannot boot the disk, at least not using a standard Microsoft MBR,
since it has no active partition.

What makes you say that?

As I write these words, I have in another window the following
FDISK screen:

Display Partition Information

Current fixed disk drive: 2

Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
D: 1 A PRI DOS WD40GB_P1 2047 FAT32 5%
2 Non-DOS 6017 16%
3 Non-DOS 10001 26%
4 EXT DOS 20097 53%

Total disk space is 38162 Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes)

The Extended DOS Partition contains Logical DOS Drives.
Do you want to display the logical drive information (Y/N)......?[Y]

Windows wouldn't boot from this drive the last time I tried, but it
is conceivable that the drive was not active at the time, or that
something else I did not notice changed in the interim, so I will try again.

Be back shortly.
--

 

[student]

Windows wouldn't boot from this drive the last time I tried, but it is
conceivable that the drive was not active at the time, or that something
else I did not notice changed in the interim, so I will try again.

Be back shortly.
--

This time it booted.

Happy to be back on the air, but not happy
that I don't know what caused the problem and
not happy that the BIOS does not correctly AUTO-select
the drive parameters.

And still not clear about what is the relationship between
the drive parameters in the BIOS and the drive parameters
in the boot sector -- or how the boot sector gets created
or changed.

In short, more uncertain than I was before.

Thanks to all who replied.
--

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

From a previous message:

"You may be able to change the BIOS setting, so the disk is shown as
255 heads 63 sectors in Windows 98."

Apropos what?

I believe I just said that those are the settings I am using now.

They also happen to be the same as the corresponding BPB settings.

[To do: When is the boot sector created and what creates it?]

You cannot boot the disk, at least not using a standard Microsoft MBR,
since it has no active partition.

What makes you say that?

The Findpart report.

As I write these words, I have in another window the following
FDISK screen:

Display Partition Information

Current fixed disk drive: 2

Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage
D: 1 A PRI DOS WD40GB_P1 2047 FAT32 5%
2 Non-DOS 6017 16%
3 Non-DOS 10001 26%
4 EXT DOS 20097 53%

Total disk space is 38162 Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes)

The Extended DOS Partition contains Logical DOS Drives.
Do you want to display the logical drive information (Y/N)......?[Y]

Windows wouldn't boot from this drive the last time I tried,

As shown by the Findpart report, no active partition.

but it is conceivable that the drive was not active at the time,

Are you blaming the little people with the wheelbarrows and the pointy red hats?

or that something else I did not notice changed in the interim,

Obviously. And it didn't change by itself.