RE: forwarded message from Thierry Laronde

[Andries . Brouwer]

        From: Graeme Vetterlein <address@hidden>

        AB> (More precisely: The four primary partitions are always numbered,
        AB> and always numbered in table order.  The logical partitions are
        AB> numbered in chain order.  If the chain zigzags over the disk,
        AB> then chain order will differ from sector order.
        AB> Neither Linux nor DOS has any objection against zigzagging chains.)


        The original problem is that W2K would not boot.
        The boot.ini file on the W2K filesystem said:

        [boot loader]
        timeout=20
        default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
        [operating systems]
        multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
        Professional" /fastdetect

        ...I'm no W2K expert, but that partition(1)  does not sound
        like 4 or 3 ...I think when W2K says partition(1) it means
        'the first non-empty partition' ... thus when extra partitions
        are added it is no longer the first non-empty entry.

I agree entirely. From Q102873:

    * W is the partition number. All partitions receive a number except
    for type 5 (MS-DOS Extended) and type 0 (unused) partitions, with
    primary partitions being numbered first and then logical drives.
    NOTE: The first valid number for W is 1.

Thus, adding partitions in a formerly unused slot will change
Windows partition numbers.

        THUS I suspect W2K does have a problem with zig-zagging chains

This is just slot ordering, I think.
No relation to sector ordering.

Andries