1024 Cylinder Boundary Problem

[Sergey]

Hello All,

I am new to Linux and I have already tried installing Fedora Core 3 and Alt Linux 2.3 distributions on my Dell Inspiron 2560 notebook that already has Windows XP installed on it. Both times I installed Linux, I could not boot Win XP. The Win XP partition could not be bootable because it crossed infamous 1024 cylinder boundary (as I was told). I really need to be able to use both, Win XP and Linux on my machine. I cannot shrink my Windows partition so it doesn't cross 1024 cylinder limit. What do I do? I've heard of some BIOS extensions and tools that somehow translate addresing of hard drives, but I couldn't find the tools themselves.

Any suggestions for overcoming the problem are welcome. My next try will be SuSE 9.3. Thanks in advance.

[retired1af]

Normally it's a BIOS issue. Go to Dell's site and see if there's an upgrade to your BIOS.

[Sergey]

I've got the latest BIOS upgrade from Dell.

[retired1af]

Is your hard drive set to LBA in the BIOS?

[Sergey]

I read about LBA, but I'm not sure whether it's on or not. How do I check if my hard drive set to LBA or not? And how do I set it to LBA if it's not?

[guitarinvegas]

you should be able to change it in your bios (enter it by pressing del or alt-f1 etc. during boot, youll see something like "hit "del" for setup) go to your drive configuration (not sure what dell's bios calls it), and it should be under that. Worse case, you might have a pebkac proof bios (gateways are fun like that), and i would suggest just contacting dell. Hope this helps
Jeff

[guitarinvegas]

p.s. Look for CHS... if thats set, youre not set for LBA

[Sergey]

Thanks for the inputs, everybody. I can access BIOS setup, but I do not see anything that has to do with LBA or CHS in there. So, I suppose LBA is not supported. Is there an alternative option to suspend the 1024 limit problem, but setting my hard drive for LBA?

[retired1af]

If the BIOS doesn't support it, you aren't getting around the issue.

Look for advanced settings for your drives. BIOS versions even as far back as 2000 was support LBA.