dual boot windows xp, failed installation

[ssk]

Hi,

When I tried to install SL6.1 on HDD the installer could not see
existing partitions with installed Windows XP and Open Suse.

The message was

"We could not detect partitions or file systems on this device ... . "

So far I could not find anything helpful on the Internet.

[RalphEllis]

Is there any chance that the file systems are "dirty" such as after a forced shutdown. What are the file systems on the hard drive?
You might try checking the disk in Windows and/or do a file system check with a live CD or DVD. The Opensuse DVD has a rescue option that allows you to check the dist for errors.

[ssk]

Hi,

Using Windows I see that I have got 4 partitions: two NTFS, FAT, and FAT32.
(I have now reformatted former linux partitions to see if this helps - no luck.)
chkdsk shows that all logical disks are clean.

Under SL, booted from live dvd, GParted sees only unallocated partition of
HDD size minus the size of partition with FAT32 and says that
"No partition table found on device /dev/sda"

[RalphEllis]

The disks themselves might be fine but unless the CD/DVD can read the partition table, it cannot access the disk. Can other Linux LIve DVDs or CDs see the partitions? Gparted has its own CD. You could try it to find if it can see your Linux partition. There are also several "Rescue" CDs around. There is a chance though that this is an SL or Anaconda bug so you may be reluctant to play around with your hard disk. There is also a chance that there is something wrong with the SL DVD. Did the checksum match what it should for the download?
If you want to play around with the disk seriously, do a full image backup first. A Partimage CD is useful for this.

[ssk]

QUOTE (RalphEllis @ Feb 6 2012, 03:16 PM)

The disks themselves might be fine but unless the CD/DVD can read the partition table, it cannot access the disk. Can other Linux LIve DVDs or CDs see the partitions? Gparted has its own CD. You could try it to find if it can see your Linux partition. There are also several "Rescue" CDs around. There is a chance though that this is an SL or Anaconda bug so you may be reluctant to play around with your hard disk. There is also a chance that there is something wrong with the SL DVD. Did the checksum match what it should for the download? If you want to play around with the disk seriously, do a full image backup first. A Partimage CD is useful for this.

Hi,

I have just checked with UBUNTU live CD and it cannot see Windows too.
The checksum is fine.
The partition table is there since Windows works and its Disk Manager can
see all the partitions. Why linux would not see them? And what exactly
would you suggest me to do?

Thanks,
ssk

[RalphEllis]

Some possibilities -
If there is an error at the hard disk physical level but not the filesystem level, you could use a commercial program like SpinRite to verify and fix the hard disk at the hardware level. This means running SpinRite at the level 4 setting. This will work if there is a hidden flaw at the hardware level. I have used SpinRite in the past and it is quite effective.

Some disks are partitioned using MS-DOS partition settings and some use the GPT settings. Linux should be able to recognize either. The only real way to check this out would be to delete the hard disk partition information using Gparted. This would get rid of all of your information on the drive and then you could set up a new partition table and new hard drive partitions. You could then reinstall Windows and Linux in these partitions. This is a very DRASTIC remedy. If your Windows and Suse installation are working, I hesitate to recommend it. Again back up everything. If you just want a more up to date Suse installation, boot into that and use as root in a terminal.
zypper dup
This will do a distribution upgrade to the next level in OpenSuse.

Sorry for the limited choices. Unless you have to have Scientific Linux, you may wish to stay with your current arrangement.

[ssk]

QUOTE (RalphEllis @ Feb 8 2012, 08:45 AM)

Some possibilities - If there is an error at the hard disk physical level but not the filesystem level, you could use a commercial program like SpinRite to verify and fix the hard disk at the hardware level. This means running SpinRite  at the level 4 setting. This will work if there is a hidden flaw at the hardware level. I have used SpinRite in the past and it is quite effective. Some disks are partitioned using MS-DOS partition settings and some use the GPT settings. Linux should be able to recognize either. The only real way to check this out would be to delete the hard disk partition information using Gparted. This would get rid of all of your information on the drive and then you could set up a new partition table and new hard drive partitions. You could then reinstall Windows and Linux in these partitions. This is a very DRASTIC remedy. If your Windows and Suse installation are working, I hesitate to recommend it. Again back up everything. If you just want a more up to date Suse installation, boot into that and use as root in a terminal. zypper dup This will do a distribution upgrade to the next level in OpenSuse. Sorry for the limited choices. Unless you have to have Scientific Linux, you may wish to stay with your current arrangement.

Dear Ralph,

Using EaseUs Partition Recovery tool (Advanced PTD), I solved the problem. This seemed to be the case there the partition table was damaged in such a way that this did not have an affect on Windows.
I have noticed that a number of people came across this puzzling problem and tried to get help on various forums, with no luck.
What helped me was the article
http://nitinpant.hubpages.com/hub/Repair-Partition-Table

Thanks a lot for your time!