why does the installer change the partition table?

[Thufir]

On Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:36:32 +0800, Koh Choon Lin wrote:

>> The partition tables of the following devices are changed:
>>  SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda)
>>  SCSI1 (0,1,0) (sdb)
>>
>> The following partitions are going to be formatted:
>>  partition #5 of SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda) as swap partition #5 of SCSI1
>>  (0,1,0) (sdb) as swap
>>
>> which concern me because I don't want to lose data on sda but don't
>> want to back up (lotsa cd burning) at the moment.
>>
>> I tried the manual approach, selected which sdb partitions I wanted
>> effected, but keep getting that message that the partition table for
>> sda has been changed.  If so, I didn't intentionally change it :(
> 
> Are you trying to install the boot loader in sda and the rest of the
> system on sdb?


Maybe your question explains why sda is being touched at all.  The 
bootloader on sda needs to be changed, perhaps?

I want to do a clean install onto the already partitioned sdb and leave 
sda entirely alone.  At a later point I'll back up sda (laborious) and 
reformat it for extra storage.

Being a bit lazy, I don't want to back up the data now, it being the 
holidays and so forth.  However, I don't want to lose data through a 
format or change in partition table for sda.

I suppose the question could be:  what does the message about changing 
the partition table for sda mean?



thanks,

Thufir