I have an older 1-gig MP3 player with a USB interface that plugs into
a PC and looks like a mass-storage device. It also recharges the
internal battery from the USB port. I had it plugged in when I made a
tweak to my kernel, and ran lilo to update the boot process for the new
kernel. I got the following message...

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Reference: disk "/dev/sdc" (8,32) 0820

LILO wants to assign a new Volume ID to this disk drive. However, changing
the Volume ID of a Windows NT, 2000, or XP boot disk is a fatal Windows error.
This caution does not apply to Windows 95 or 98, or to NT data disks.

Is the above disk an NT boot disk? [Y/n]^C
================================================== =====================

I hit {CTRL-C} to stop it. Then I unplugged the MP3 player, and ran
lilo without incident. Was lilo actually intending to physically write
to /dev/sdc? BTW, here's the output of "fdisk -l". The MP3 player is
listed at the end.

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Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9ba53901

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 121601 976760001 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 1 33 265009+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 34 1209 9446188+ 82 Linux swap /
Solaris
/dev/sda7 1210 121601 967048708+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 1041 MB, 1041367040 bytes
227 heads, 56 sectors/track, 160 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 12712 * 512 = 6508544 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 160 1016932 b W95 FAT32


--
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>