Linux-Noob Forums

Sorry, I don't have much time, so this post will be rushed.

 

I have just restored Windows having had PHP 5.1.1 compile in Linux delete my partition table (it's now happened twice). I'll explain more tomorrow, but please read my bug submission.

 

Basically, I'm on dual boot and I think the PHP installation deleted my partition table (or MBR, something significant). I was upgrading to the latest version.

This broke my system twice :(, so I don't want anyone else's system to be broken.

 

Sorry, I'll try and get in more details, but as I say, I don't have the time tonight.

 

:(

very doubtful

 

something else is causing this issue, give us more details of exactly what you were doing the TWO times this happened

 

cheers

 

anyweb

Quote:I have just restored Windows having had PHP 5.1.1 compile in Linux delete my partition table (it's now happened twice). I'll explain more tomorrow, but please read my bug submission. 

Basically, I'm on dual boot and I think the PHP installation deleted my partition table (or MBR, something significant). I was upgrading to the latest version.

 

Unfortunately this cannot really be the cause for the sudden loss of your partition table. The install would not use anything that could even accidentally wreck the partition. The other other possible cause is some other program in the background that is doing something, a fault hard disk which is incapable of mantaining the partition (i had one of those not much fun) or finally something that is causing the kernel to go tweaking (happening to me too)..

 

Check the output of "dmesg" .. and also the logs, these will give you a more likely source of the nasty that is doing this.

 

OK.. later i'm going to bed.. ;)

Sorry about the rushed reply.

 

Right, here's the long story. I appreciate that you guys think it wasn't PHP, and maybe you are right. But, directly after compiling PHP on both occasions, my part table was wiped, so there is something to do with that and it is killing my system.

 

The first time, I decided to upgrade to PHP 5.1.1. I wanted to install libcurl with PHP anyway, so I needed to recompile. The compile and build worked successfully and all my PHP pages would work. I then downloaded Anyweb's Windows Vista video ([/url][url=http://anyweb.kicks-ass.net/computers/os/w...os/switcher.avi]http://anyweb.kicks-ass.net/computers/os/w...os/switcher.avi) and needed to reboot into Windows to watch it (I don't have Mplayer or anything).

 

I rebooted, and GRUB was gone along with all the partitions on my first hard drive. I managed to boot into my image copy of Windows once (and only once), and on this one occasion it could see everything (well - everything that Windows can see ;) - I wish I'd taken a screenshot of Disk Management). I backed up the most important things, but not knowing that Windows would not boot again, I lost data.

 

A reinstall of Windows was in order, and I've spent most of this weekend getting programs back on my system. :( It comes the time for Linux to be installed, so I back up my nice new Windows installation first.

 

Linux installs fine and rebooting just after the install shows that Windows still works. So, I go for it and rebuild PHP 5.1.1 (yes, I checked the MD5 sum). It appears to work fine. Rebooting shows: my bootloader is gone again and so is everything on my first hard drive :( .

 

Obviously, I don't have a Linux installation to play with right now, and it's a bit inconvenient to be reproducing the problem all the time, because it's a real fiddle even to recover this backup of Windows. [img]<___base_url___>/uploads/emoticons/default_dry.png[/img]

 

So, what is doing this? It must be either PHP or something to do with it. o_O

 

Needless to say, I'm not putting PHP backo n my system until I know it won't do this again. (Interestingly, I've run version 5.0.5 for a long time with no problems).

 

EDIT:

 



 

My current Windows disk management screenshot. As you can guess, the unallocated space contained Windows data partitions (two I think) and Linux and Linux swap.

Quote:The compile and build worked successfully and all my PHP pages would work.

 

Therefore cannot be the PHP because it worked fine...

 

Quote:I rebooted, and GRUB was gone along with all the partitions on my first hard drive. I managed to boot into my image copy of Windows once (and only once), and on this one occasion it could see everything (well - everything that Windows can see ;) - I wish I'd taken a screenshot of Disk Management). I backed up the most important things, but not knowing that Windows would not boot again, I lost data.

 

something else has damaged the partition table...

 

Quote:So, what is doing this? It must be either PHP or something to do with it. o_O

 

or harddisk faulty, or software running in the background, or.. lots of other things im sure..

 

ugh it sucks what happened but im 100% sure that the PHP compile did not cause it, it could be that something when shutting down your system to switch to windows is doing it.. it could be a lot of things, have you upgraded anything recently? did you edit any configs recently.. did you manage to get a copy of the dmesg output ?

 

can you run a harddisk check to ensure that the disk is fine?

yeah even a chkdsk in windows should tell you something,

 

this isnt a php problem, it's something else, most likely something that you installed in windows or a symptom of impending failure of the hdd

 

cheers

anyweb

Quote:yeah even a chkdsk in windows should tell you something, 

this isnt a php problem, it's something else, most likely something that you installed in windows or a symptom of impending failure of the hdd

 

cheers

anyweb

 

This is what I thought after it did it the first time, but I reinstalled Windows and Linux from scratch. The only data left on my computer was my documents and static backups (on the other HDD). When I rebuilt PHP, exactly the same thing happened - at exactly the same time, just after building PHP. [img]<___base_url___>/uploads/emoticons/default_ohmy.png[/img]

 

This is weird o_O

 

EDIT:

 

Windows chkdsk results (it only does one drive as Windows sees it though):