Core 3, SCSI, SATA and installing

[Geoffrey Leach]

Greetings.

This is going to be somewhat involved, so please bear with me.

I have a number of related questions having to do with troubles  
installing Core 3.  I've marked them "Q:"

The box involved is a dual-Qpteron with SATA on the MB (two disks, no  
RAID) and an Adaptec 29160N controlling an additional two disks.  
Windows XP is installed in partition 1 of the first SATA. The system  
has been running Core 2 since it was released. As Windows was installed  
first, there was no dual-boot problem. At the time of the installation  
of Core 2, the Adaptec card was not installed.

Device assignment was: /dev/sda, /dev/sdb SATA; /dev/sdc, /dev/sdd  
SCSI.

Here's what the partition setup looked like before I began:
 /dev/sda1 Windows XP ntfs
 /dev/sda2 /boot      ext3
 /dev/sda3 /          ext3

The partition with Windows is undersized.  What I was hoping to do is  
this: re-partition that disk to create a second NTFS partition next to  
it. What I was hoping to achieve was this:
 /dev/sda1 Windows XP ntfs
 /dev/sda2 new        ntfs
 /dev/sda3 /boot      ext3
 /dev/sda4 /          ext3

The strategy was to to a fresh install of Core 3, and to twiddle the  
partitioning to achieve the new setup. So, booting up the Core 3 dvd I  
go into DiskDruid and, volia!, the SCSI disks are sda and sdb, my boot  
disk is now sdc. Panic!

Q: I was unable to figure out how to re-arrange the assignments. Is  
there a path to do this?  Or was I unnecessarily pan iced -- should the  
BIOS (Phoenix 6.0) have found the boot partition?

OK, no problem.  Just disconnect the cable from the SCSI card. The  
Adaptec card is still discovered, but there are no SCSI disks, so the  
device assignments are as I wished them.  Now I attempt re-partitioning  
of sda using DiskDruid.  However, as I add a new partition, it moves  
into the "wrong" position.  That is, instead of what I wanted, I got  
this:
 /dev/sda1 Windows XP ntfs
 /dev/sda2 /boot      ext3
 /dev/sda3 /          ext3
 /dev/sda4 new
even though "new" was created before "/boot" and "/"

Q: Is there a way around this?

OK, no problem :-)  I boot up the system and when it stops because sda  
and sdc are in fstab but not on line, I use parted to create the "new"  
partition (as VFAT, of course) in the place I wanted it.

OK, back to DiskDruid, and create "/boot" and "/" after my new  
partition. Install goes OK.

Reboot and .... grub() displays the _old_ menu.  It's looking at my old  
grub.conf. Reboot to rescue. Everything is _exactly_ as it should be.

Q: Grub is looking at the leftover data on /dev/sda2.  Was there any  
way to avoid this in the install process? Is this a grub bug?

Booted to Windows.  Formatted /dev/sda2 as ntfs.  Reboot.  Grub sees  
only the NTFS partition (type x42), and (of course) shows only the  
prompt, not the menu. Windows has extended the new NTFS partition to  
the end of the disk.

Removed the SCSI card (previously just disconnected disks) and re- 
installed Core 3 on sda2 and sda3, wiping out the new NTFS partition.  
In retrospect, this was a stupid move.  I should have resized the new  
NTFS partition and tried again, without removing the SCSI card.

Q: Is there any way to accomplish what I set out to do?

Thanks, especially if you read this far.