Partitions on slave.. 1

[Wullie]

Hi all,

This question is just in case of disaster, I don't actually require to do now, just want to be prepared for the worst.

I have 3 partitions on my slave drive that just hold data, no OS.

If I then formatted the master drive, would the machine still regonise the partitions on the slave or would I lose them?

If it wouldn't recognise them, how do I retrieve them?

The reasoning for this is that the slave contains all the data for a web server and mail server, my aim is to be able to format the master and get the machine running again as quick as possible without losing any data on the slave.

Any advice appreciated,

Thanks in advance, Wullie

http://www.freshlookdesign.co.uk

http://www.searchit-now.co.uk

http://www.survivorhelp.co.uk

 

[edfair]

Any new operating system will recognise them to the limits of its abilities. There is, however, some gotchas. They would be recognized by any OS that has capability of recognizing the filesystem type that makes up the partitions. There is also the question of how the 3 partitions are recognized by your current OS.
Are you sure you want to define them as 3 partitions, or as 2 partitions with extended drives on one? And if really 3 partitions, how did you create them, and how do you see them from an emergency boot disk? Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[Wullie]

Hi Ed,

Thanks for that.

Are you sure you want to define them as 3 partitions, or as 2 partitions with extended drives on one?

I don't really have a clue about this, I am out of my depth here. I think they may already be extended drives. I am really looking for the best option available.

What I really want is to have 1 partition to hold the mail server and web server, 1 for other programs and 1 for backups. The backups are of data from the C drive.

And if really 3 partitions, how did you create them, and how do you see them from an emergency boot disk?

They were created by Partition magic and fdisk shows them as all present and correct size.

I have created a screenshot of the layout just incase that will help,

http://www.freshlookdesign.co.uk/partitions.gif

Thanks again,


Wullie

http://www.freshlookdesign.co.uk

http://www.searchit-now.co.uk

http://www.survivorhelp.co.uk

 

[edfair]

Since they are creatures of partition magic it will take partition magic to see them. Or at lest to see them all. So you will have to get PM on the newly formatted drive.

Fdisk sees them as primary partitions, so that answers the logical drive question.

I've used PM a good bit but this is a product that has so few problems that I haven't been into it recently, so I don't have a feel for a solution.

I probably would throw a hard drive on the system as primary master, load SE, then play with PM until I knew it was right. But that's easy for me to say with carcasses and parts overrunning my playpen. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[Wullie]

Thanks Ed,

So let me get this right. If I format the master, install PM on it, then it should see the partitions ok??

I'm not going to hold anyone responsible if it doesn't work, I am just wanting opinions.

If the worst happened, I have this info backed up to a cd anyway, but this is just for convienience and to keep 2 backup copies as I have had so many problems in the past..

Thanks for the help. Wullie

http://www.freshlookdesign.co.uk

http://www.searchit-now.co.uk

http://www.survivorhelp.co.uk

 

[edfair]

Evidently you have learned some lessons. (2 backup copies)

I would prefer to hear you say you were going to try it with another drive first. That way you could get back to current setup without problems. If the test worked OK, then you could take the current setup down.

You might also consider putting the install stuff on the 1 visible partition so you could do a disk install. Makes life a lot easier, not just the speed.

You might also do some experimenting with a boot floppy to see if you could get access that way. Would be invaluable to know if you really hit a pothole. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[Wullie]

Ed,

Thanks, yes I have learned some lessons in the past, at one point not that long ago I nearly lost 12 complete websites because of my stupidity. I backed them up to cd, put the cd away and when my machine crashed, I formatted, inserted the cd and it was blank. Lets say my machine nearly went through the window that day!!

Luckily that time, I found a recovery program that worked and I only lost a small portion of the data.

The problem with the current set-up is that I can't really experiment as that means taking my server down.. I am just going to hope for the best and touch wood, I will never need this info.. LOL

Thanks again, I appreciate it..
Wullie

http://www.freshlookdesign.co.uk

http://www.searchit-now.co.uk

http://www.survivorhelp.co.uk

 

[wolluf]

As your second drive is just a primary FAT32 with and extended partion containing 2 FAT32 drives, Win95OSR2, Win98, WinME, Win2k and WinXP should all be able to successfully read it (if installed on first drive). You don't need PM to read partitions created by it (it just uses standard filestore types). It is possible that new operating system won't read disk (because computers are such wonderful things - and throw these curves at you from time to time), but very unlikely. Your approach to keeping data separate from operating system to simplify reinstalling/upgrading operating system is a good one - and is widely used.