a7v and Partition Magic

[Guest]

Be aware if you are using Partition Magic on the drives hooked up to the Promise (ata100) controller on the a7v that there is a serious error which can render a drive completely unaccessible under windows.

According to PowerQuest support, there are several known problems with the a7v and the Promise Controller. (There are no known problems with the HighPoint controller i.e. Abit)

The problem I came across is that if multiple copy operations are being performed on a drive hooked up to the Promise controller, that drive becomes completely inaccessible to Windows. In fact the system will not boot, be it from a hard drive or from floppies, as long as this drive is hooked up to the motherboard. Even if the drive is moved off the ata100 controller to the ide controllers, the machine will never boot windows.

If this drive is now taken to a Linux machine, it will boot and the problem becomes readily apparent. There are now 60 primary partitions on the drive. They can be deleted in Linux and the drive can once again be used under Windows.

 

[Mahimahi]

Hi Gorenc,
What exactly do you mean by "multiple copy operations" ?
I just have build a new system on the A7V133 with an IBM Deskstar 45 Giga on the ATA100 partitioned with Partition Magic (six partitions, no free space left), yesterday I copied practically the whole evening files from my old system to the new one. I haven't had the slightest problem.


:tongue: <font color=blue>ACUNA MATATA?<font color=blue>.. <font color=red>MATATA MATATA!!<font color=red>

 

[Guest]

I was copying to the same type of drive - IBM Deskstar 45 Gb. If I did single copy operations and rebooted after every one - it was OK. But as you know with Partition Magic, you can do multiple operations one after another. They call it a batch. After I did even two operations in a batch, the drive was screwed.

Note, that it may not have to do with multiple operation as much as the size of the data to be moved within the batch. Apparently there is a limit on the amount of data that the Promise controller can handle.

 

[Mahimahi]

If I understand well, you placed several operations after each other in Partition Magic (copies or moves or extends) and then executed them with the batch?
I just duplicated my first partition once, (filled with Win98Se), the rest where just empty partitions created one after the other.
Normal copies outside Partitiom Magic wouldn't give any problems I suppose?

:tongue: <font color=blue>ACUNA MATATA?<font color=blue>.. <font color=red>MATATA MATATA!!<font color=red><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Mahimahi on 01/26/01 01:10 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

Yes that is correct. I like to do batch operations because you can then walk away and let it run for however long it takes.

As far as "Normal copies outside Partitiom Magic wouldn't give any problems" I'm not so certain about that. Let's say I haven't encountered any, but the guys at PowerQuest are saying that there appears to be some limit the Promise controller can handle. So you may get lucky, but I guess there's always a possibility you may run into a problem if you are moving a large amount of data.

 

[Mahimahi]

Do you think it would be better to move the drive directly to the ATA66 and forget about the ATA100?... Such a waste!
What did you do?

:tongue: <font color=blue>ACUNA MATATA?<font color=blue>.. <font color=red>MATATA MATATA!!<font color=red>

 

[Guest]

I haven't tried that combination, because I just spoke with PowerQuest today. However, if I were to do large copy operations again, certainly I would be doing them off the ordinary IDE controllers and not the Promise controllers.

But that being said, for 99% of the stuff done on a computer, the Promise controllers should be fine.

 

[Mahimahi]

Gorenc, what if you should have started Partition Magic from a Dos-bootable diskette, I think you should have seen the 60 primaries immediately?

:tongue: <font color=blue>ACUNA MATATA?<font color=blue>.. <font color=red>MATATA MATATA!!<font color=red>

 

[Guest]

That would have been easy, unfortunately it cannot be done. Windows did not boot, whether from diskette, cdrom or hard drive. And whether it was 95, 98, 98se or Me.

Period.

Windows loads the kernel then it loads the iosys and that's where it hangs.

There is a limit in Windows of 4 primary partitions per drive. Can't go above that.

Linux has no such limit.

 

[Mahimahi]

No not booting into Windows, Partition Magic is also a stand alone Dos program, in that form it has nothing to do with Windows.
Start with Dos 6.22 and then load the Dos version of P-Magic, I think that should do it.

:tongue: <font color=blue>ACUNA MATATA?<font color=blue>.. <font color=red>MATATA MATATA!!<font color=red>

 

[Guest]

If you are refering to the PM rescue diskettes, then those didn't work either.

I would be surprised if DOS 6.22 would work, because the 4-primary partition limit existed all along in DOS.

 

[Mahimahi]

Yep, you're right. My mistake, sorry

:tongue: <font color=blue>ACUNA MATATA?<font color=blue>.. <font color=red>MATATA MATATA!!<font color=red>