[DONE] Grub does not find all OS's on disk

[andrew-lohmann]

Samsung R50 Laptop with 1GB memory and 160GB hard disk. Mageia 4.1

When I use the Mageia Control panel to add or change which partitions are offered at boot but the list appears to be different to the Boot menu offered. I find Grub 2 better to work with than the default Grub 1.5.

The computer is new to me and the hard disk has areas with a lot of bad allocation units which are coming to light and I am clearing. The hard disk also has areas towards the higher cylinder numbers which are in very good order this is where I have Mageia installed. The disk also had a problem in the boot area (MBR?) I have used HDD manufactures tools to resolve by replacement those problems. This means that I have added and removed partitions a number of times moved data a lot in order to use and discover poor areas on the hard disk. I mention this not to discuss disk condition which I think is good but that when running windows in the past Check Disk has not been run often. But to say that the Grub configuration will have changed many times and I think some how what I edit with the GUI tool is different the configuration which is being run.

Presently the partition map is;
1) Ubuntu
2) Windows XP (NTFS)
4) Extended partition
5) Windows XP (NTFS) (back up for another computer) This is shown in the boot menu although I do not wanted it listed.
6) NTFS data partition.
9) Mageia /
8) Linux Swap
7) Mageia /home

Observation connected with the boot menu
An attempt to remove item 5 resulted in item 1 being removed.
An attempt to restore item 1 resulted in no change. (add windows or other OS Sda1).
Running Install (update) restored all items with Grub 2. (Grub 2 seems to be more likely to succeed rather than Grub 1.5)
Recent update of Mageia included an update of Grub 2 resulted in item 1 being removed from the boot menu.
Once again running Mageia install Update restored all items.

Other observations and issues closely related
I have also found that when booting Mageia the start up does not launch the desktop but stops at a text prompt inviting me to enter root login or CTRL-D. This occurs after I may have added or removed partitions. But install does not resolve the issue unless I format and create an entirely new installation and user. This last aspect is particularly concerning because if I want to move to another computer or replace a hard disk or change anything it does not seem to be possible to retain the my user data. The installer update or install otherwise does not resolve this issue.

[andrew-lohmann]

I removed partitions 5 and 6 then everything behaved very well.

I added another copy on Ubuntu (I really wanted to replace the one that is there but the Ubuntu installer did not seem to be that flexible).
Once again I did not manage to get all that I wanted and reinstalling, Update, Mageia did not help I lost some partitions.
I then put back and moved around partitions using Parted Magic leaving the new Ubuntu where I wanted it, that is as the first partition. I had a Mageia /home but added a replacement empty Mageia / and Swap partitions. The Mageia installation complete everything worked fine but there was no Ubuntu. I then Upgraded to Grub 2 and everything came back fine including Ubuntu and the numbering of the Mageia partitions are changed.

What the problem might be?

1) Mageia installation is not comfortable with more than 3 additional partitions or 3 additional OS on one Hard disk.

2) Mageia Installation partitioner tool can damage the partition table; This may be when resized a windows partition. Having said that it was the Mageia / and Linux-Swap partitions that were lost. Parted Magic, Gparted ran all night and I cancelled the job trying to recover them.

[doktor5000]

What the problem might be?

For others? Your confusing writing/train of thought maybe ...

2) Mageia Installation partitioner tool can damage the partition table; This may be when resized a windows partition. Having said that it was the Mageia / and Linux-Swap partitions that were lost. Parted Magic, Gparted ran all night and I cancelled the job trying to recover them.

Always when using multiple partitioning tools you risk something. Check viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4255&p=30280

[andrew-lohmann]

Thanks Doktor,

I think Gparted more robust as some of the comments on the link suggest. It is useful also to use the windows/dos tools that HDD makers provide although some of them are not available now Seagate still have some you can download. Also a Windows installation disk can put things back to a good basic starting point.

Grub and Grub 2 could be better having said that I don't think anyone else provides a GUI to handle it.

Note; I have had the computer 6 weeks and have been moving data around on it then running the check disk with XP also seeing how Linux behaves. The top half of the hard disk is perfect but I expect that the bottom half of the disk had over 100,000 undiscovered bad sectors which probable is reasonable but the computer should have been check disk more during its life as well as some of the not-recommend power saving features turned off. The computer also has a poor bios in which the default settings would not start this or another known good hard disk - that is the risk of using a Samsung rather than say a Compaq or IBM those things tend to be near perfect when the bios is up-to-date.

[andrew-lohmann]

Correction to the above a Linux tool called Disk advises me there are now 308 bad sectors on the hard disk. Although the problems are not solved I shall mark this post DONE.

(2) Mixing my train or writing - sorry I did not put that well. The outcome was all as a consequence of Gparted in Parted Magic Which although I cancelled at Windows partition resizing but doing that left me with two Linux partitions missing not the the windows partition that I had stopped the job.

[andrew-lohmann]

Since posting this I have seen another clue. I had observed this a few time before.

If when install Mageia I remove all the mounting points of partitions that are created but for the two Mageia / and /home. That is I remove any Windows mounting points and the installation works just the same. If subsequently I do some work on partitions which causes the Mageia Desktop to fail to start and I need to reinstalled or updated I can do that successfully without needing to make a clean installation but just an update Or install without formatting anything. The previous step of deleting the Windows mounting points helps. The clue was seen in the staring up tested some things did not mount which seemed prevented the desktop launching.

I still need to ensure that there are no more than two other operating systems on the particular Hard disk.