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Re: [OCLUG-Tech] Partition renumbering ??

Hi Bruce;

On Mon, 2008-06-09 at 20:03 -0700, Bruce Miller wrote:
> There is a 99% probable explanation to this apparent confusion. Operating systems (and driver specs) allow four "primary" partitions on any one physical device. The wrinkle is that the last of those partitions may be defined as an "extended" partition. A user never uses an extended partition as such. It is a "container" for a series of logical partitions. Regardless of which "primary partition" (1,2,,3 or 4) is named to be "extended", logical partition numbers *_always_* start at 5. 
> 
>  The output you received from an interactive session is somewhat different to what I received from a read-only run of fdisk with the command 'fdisk -l /dev/sda'. Note the definition of sda4. Try running the read-only command (it's also less dangerous), and see if you too find a definition of an extended partition:
> 
> Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> Disk identifier: 0x0002c303
> 
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sda1               1        1305    10482381   83  Linux
> /dev/sda2            1306        1560     2048287+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
> /dev/sda3   *        1561        1573      104422+  83  Linux
> /dev/sda4            1574       60801   475748910    5  Extended
> /dev/sda5            1574        2878    10482381   83  Linux
> /dev/sda6            2879        2891      104391   83  Linux
> /dev/sda7            2892        4196    10482381   83  Linux
> /dev/sda8            4197        4209      104391   83  Linux
> /dev/sda9            4210        5514    10482381   83  Linux
> /dev/sda10           5515        5527      104391   83  Linux
> /dev/sda11           5528       60801   443988373+  83  Linux
> 

I get:

]# fdisk -l
[snip]
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        4089    32844861    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2            4090        4982     7173022+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5            4090        4982     7172991   83  Linux

[snip]
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               2        4998    40138402+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5   *           2          11       80293+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb6              12         164     1228941   82  Linux swap /
Solaris
/dev/sdb7             165        1184     8193118+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb8            1185        3723    20394486   83  Linux
/dev/sdb9            3724        4998    10241406    b  W95 FAT32

I see on sda my linux backup partition /dev/sda5 is part of the
extended /dev/sda2 and what you say about starting the linux partition
on the fifth partition is true.  However, and I never noticed it before,
sdb1 is a W95 Ext'd partition.  sdb is my "linux" drive with only sdb9
formatted as FAT32.  sdb9 is my backup partition for WindowsXP on sda.

I don't (remember) know how it got there; but it has been set up that
way for a while.  I am always screwing around so it doesn't surprise me.

     1. What effect could that have had on running my Linux system, if
        any?
     2. What effect might that have had on grub, if any?
     3. What is the best way of fixing it?  Doing a completely fresh
        installation (including repartitioning and formatting) of Fedora
        9 after backing up sdb9? All the other partitions are backed up
        to sda5.

I would be particularly interested in answers to the first 2 questions.
I don't expect any problems accomplishing point 3.

-- 
Regards Bill