Partitions does not end on cylinder boundary

[8yun]

I just noticed, maybe after I installed Windows 7 on my laptop, the partition table show overlapped. Here is output from sudo fdisk -l:


laptop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for roger:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 678 5444608 27 Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 679 2502 14643720 83 Linux
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 5062 19457 115630200 5 Extended
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4 * 2502 5062 20563200 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5 5062 5323 2094088+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 5323 19457 113536048+ 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order


when I run sudo testdisk and analyze it, output is:

TestDisk 6.9, Data Recovery Utility, February 2008
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sda - 160 GB / 149 GiB - CHS 19457 255 63
Current partition structure:
Partition Start End Size in sectors

1 P Sys=27 0 32 33 677 242 13 10889216

Bad sector count.
2 P Linux 678 150 1 2501 164 63 29287440

Bad relative sector.
3 E extended 5061 165 1 19456 239 63 231260400
Warning: Incorrect number of heads/cylinder 240 (NTFS) != 255 (HD)
4 * HPFS - NTFS 2501 165 1 5061 164 63 41126400
5 L Linux Swap 5061 166 1 5322 89 63 4188177
X extended 5322 90 1 19456 239 63 227072160
6 L Linux 5322 91 1 19456 239 63 227072097 [NewVol]


Any idea what is the problem here? how to fix it? My ubuntu version is 8.10 intrepid.

Roger

[vandorjw]

The easiest way to fix this would be such.

1) Backup everything that is important to you.

2) Insert windows 7 Disk and wipe the system. Delete all partitions, and make a partition for swap **, Ubuntu and windows 7. Install windows 7.

Then when that is done. Install Ubuntu on the partitions that you made with win 7. (Reformat them to ext3)

Many people will have gparted automatically resize their partitions, but I am unsure of this as I feel it might mess up sometimes.

Always plan ahead. :)

Cheers - CC7

[8yun]

The easiest way to fix this would be such.

1) Backup everything that is important to you.

2) Insert windows 7 Disk and wipe the system. Delete all partitions, and make a partition for swap **, Ubuntu and windows 7. Install windows 7.
ll
Then when that is done. Install Ubuntu on the partitions that you made with win 7. (Reformat them to ext3)

Many people will have gparted automatically resize their partitions, but I am unsure of this as I feel it might mess up sometimes.

Always plan ahead. :)

Cheers - CC7

Thanks CC7, but it is pain to install everything again. If there is another solution, I would prefer to maintain what it is except the problem. someone said testdisk could fix the problem, however, it didn't work for me. any other idea?

[meierfra.]

Your "fdisk -l" looks perfectly normal. You can ignore the "does not end on cylinder boundary" warning. Partitions used to have to end on "cylindrical" bounds. But these days everything is calculated in terms of sectors. So from Vista on, Windows started using partitions which do not end on cylindrical bounds. This does not cause any problems.


The "bad sector count" and "bad relative sector" warning are due to the different geometries (240 versus 255). But again nobody actually uses these geometries. So you can also ignore the testdisk warning.


So as far as I can see, there is nothing wrong with your partition table.

[8yun]

Your "fdisk -l" looks perfectly normal. You can ignore the "does not end on cylinder boundary" warning. Partitions used to have to end on "cylindrical" bounds. But these days everything is calculated in terms of sectors. from Vista on, Windows started using partitions which do not end on cylindrical bounds. This does not cause any problems.


The "bad sector count" and "bad relative sector" warning are due to the different geometries (240 versus 255). But again nobody actually uses these geometries. So you can also ignore the testdisk warning.


So as far as I can see, there is nothing wrong with your partition table.

Is that so? that is much released. I am so worry about that my data may be corrupted as the partition overlapped. Thanks meierfra.

[meierfra.]

as the partition overlapped.

I don't see any overlapping partition.

/dev/sda3 is an extended partition (that is, a container for other partitions) which contains the logical partitions /dev/sda5 and /dev/sda6.

Have a look at the output of


sudo fdisk -lu

That list starts and end points in terms of sectors and might give a little better picture.

Also have a look at the partition with gparted


sudo apt-get install gparted
gksudo gparted

[8yun]

the command output is:

sudo fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 10891263 5444608 27 Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 10901520 40188959 14643720 83 Linux
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 81315360 312575759 115630200 5 Extended
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4 * 40188960 81315359 20563200 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5 81315423 85503599 2094088+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 85503663 312575759 113536048+ 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

it is clear that no overlapped. thank you very much!:popcorn: