Defragmenting Windows/Linux Dual-Boot

[Rick Bull]

I posted here a while ago about a problem I was having with Linux Mandrake and Windows. I installed Linux as a dual boot with Win98 SE, then I defragged in Windows and Linux wouldn't load. I formatted my HDD and go back the patition, and now I'm thinking of retrying it again. Is there someway I can keep defragmenting in Win without it ruining everything, a third party utility? Has anyone else had this problem also?

[Wynd]

I've never had that problem. You're supposed to defrag before you install Linux though, to make sure there aren't any file fragments floating around in erroneous places. Did you do that?

[Rick Bull]

Yeah I did do that. I did the same thing on my PC downstairs and that botched too Maybe they just don't like me?

[parksie]

Linux tends to hang onto some absolute disk addresses for certain things, like the DOS bootloader which is needs to know about.

[Rick Bull]

So how does that related to me losing my Linux partition? Does the defragmenter trash that information?

[parksie]

I don't know why it should break Linux, the defragmenter shouldn't be messing with the core disk layout sectors.

If the defragmenter's moved data on the disk that the Linux loader is expecting then it possibly won't work. The Linux boot image needs to be within the first 1024 cylinders of your disk, I believe (although it's unlikely the defragger would go near your Linux partitions).

[Rick Bull]

So I'm assuming you use Linux and don't have any problems with the defragmenter? It must be that though, because like I said it did exactly the same thing on my other PC. Do you think if I got a third part disk utility program it would be better?

[parksie]

I have had Linux dual-booting before and never had problems with the defragmenter

Now my linux installation is on a separate machine over the other side of the room, so it saves me all those thorny issues

Can you get into linux at all? Do you have a boot floppy you can re-load LILO with? (If you use LILO - if it's GRUB then I'm not sure about that one).

[Rick Bull]

Yeah I can get Linux on again, and no I don't/didn't have a floppy to reload LILO with. I would have make a boot disk but it didn't offer me during installation (and I'm sure it should have). So if it goes wrong again, I should be able to reload LILO with a boot disk?

[parksie]

You *should* be able to.

I'm not an expert on this, so taking a browse through some of the HOWTOs might give you more detail.

[Rick Bull]

OK, thanks very much for all of you help. I wonder why this only seems to affect me though