I have a v4 iopener with a 10GB 12.5mm IBM travelstar drive.
I intended to set it up with a small partition (<2GB) for Windows,
and a larger partition for CD images and other large data files.
The second partition was also to be a rescue/reinstallation tools
partition, so it should be bootable too. To do this without bootmanagers,
etc. both partitions must be primary dos partitions.
(Fdisk is used to switch which partition boots...)
Unfortunately, the non-boot partition can't be accessed in the IO if both are
primary. I think this is a bios problem because:
1. Linux on the sandisk can read both partitions( it doesn't use bios calls ).
2. If I take the drive to my desktop and boot it, I can see, and read from both partitions under dos.
3. In the iO, when I switch between partitions with fdisk, the data is visible in
whichever partition is booted, but reads of the non-boot partition fail.
Some other things I noticed:
If I boot from the larger partition ( second on the disk), I get told that the
first partition is not formatted, but formatting the partition fails.
If I boot from the first partition, I get told that the second partition is corrupt.
With v5 or v5pmi bios loaded, I can't complete the formatting portion of the format. It always dies
near 30% complete.
With v1 bios loaded, the formatting pass is completed, and the format fails when trying
to write the filesystem table to the new drive. It also formats about 3x as fast as under v5.
I guess I'll give up and use a boot manager
( I can see all the data fine under dos in the iO if I configure the 2nd partition as a logical
partition instead...), but the fact that these problems occur is worth noting.
