# UN1: Partition Mounts Wrong

## metalhedd

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UN1: I'm having problems with my newly made partitions.  They're only mounting read-only, or I can't make symlinks on them, or tarballs aren't extracting properly, or they're showing up mounted as vfat or ntfs.  I'm sure that I used mkfs correctly, but it's not working.  Why?

Symptoms:

- /boot partition contains Windows Files

- Errors extracting stageX tarballs

- partition is mounting as vfat instead of ext2 or other fs of choice.

What's the Problem?

- Windows fat table remains on disk even after mke2fs

How to verify the problem:

(if the partition is hda1)

umount /dev/hda1

mount /dev/hda1 /boot

mount

this will show the fs type that the partition was mounted as vfat instead of ext2 or your fs of choice.

Solution:

- Completely wipe out the contents on the partition using dd.  (dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdXY)

Be sure to make backups if necessary.

Quickfix:

- Specify the fs type when mounting the partition

(ie. mount -t ext2 /dev/hda1 /boot)

NOTE: If you are installing gentoo where Windows used to be, as a general precaution run dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/BOOT immediately before mke2fs during the install process.  (replace /dev/BOOT With the appropriate device)

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## rac

Post feedback to [FAQF] UN1: Sticky Windows.

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