Urza9814 Posted January 11, 2004 Report Share Posted January 11, 2004 I recently got a new hard drive specifically for linux, but I couldn't install it on the computer I had planned to, because when I put in the boot disc, it didn't work, though I have all the requirements. Anyways, I put the hard drive in my other comp as a secondary harddrive, and installed linux, making sure the entire partition was on that drive. However, when I remove it, Windows won't boot, and if I put it on the other comp, it says there is no OS installed! :-S anyone know what happened or how to fix it, short of reinstalling both OSs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted January 11, 2004 Report Share Posted January 11, 2004 Sure, its pretty obvious what happened.. When you installed Windows, it took the very first sector of your hard drive and turned it into a MBR, a Master Boot Record. This MBR has information for your computer to read when it is turned on. The information tells your computer where to locate, on the hard drive, the partition that contains the boot loader program. The boot loader program is a program that allows you to have more than one OS on your computer and it has information on each OS and how to load it. You are presented with a menu so you can select the OS you want to enter. If you only have one OS, you might not even see the boot loader (depends on the OS). When you installed Mandrake Linux, the MBR is overwritten by Linux's version of the MBR so that it points to the linux partition that has the boot loader for linux. This is called LILO. The MBR will run LILO and LILO will help you pick the OS you want to enter, either Windows or Linux. However, if you were to unexpectedly throw away the partition that contains the boot loader, in this case, LILO, the MBR does not know what to do as it can't find the boot loader. So what you need to do is fix the MBR. There are several ways.. 1. If you can find a DOS boot floppy with the fdisk.exe program on it, you can boot off of the floppy and type fdisk /mbr 2. You can reinstall Mandrake and restore the boot loader, LILO. After you install it, you can boot into linux and open a terminal and type lilo -U When LILO installs, it makes a copy of the older MBR and saves it. When you type LILO -U it restores it. This would have been the correct way to remove Linux. Do this first and then destroy the partitions for linux. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted January 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 (edited) Aight, I thought something like that had happened...during install it said something about the Swap partition...I figured it probably had something to do with that. If I tried to reinstall, and put the MBR somewhere else, would that cause problems? Because I did, and linux won't load (I posted this somewhere else already, so if this isn't the cause, then look for that if you wanna know anything else about it) [edit] I don't have a DOS boot floppy...and I tried reinstalling linux, but it still doesn't work :-S I think I found it on the windows XP cd...but right as I was gonna try...my brother needed back on the comp...guess I'll have to try later... Edited January 12, 2004 by Urza9814 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 Are you going with the lilo default settings when installing? Should be hda? If not, use the default.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 You can check here... http://www.bootdisk.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pzatch Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 Put the new hard drive into the computer as the master. Make sure the jumper pins are correctly set to master and not cable select or slave. leave the origional harddrive disconected for now. Install Mandrake to the new drive and place the boot loader in the MBR or that drive. Now switch the drive back to the computer you want it in. Reconnect the other hard drive back into its origional place. Connect the new drive into the computer you want it in leaving it as master. Try starting the computer making sure that the bios knows its there and reads it as the correct size. Make sure plug and play in the bios is turned off. Post back any errors you get. Why couldn't you just put the cdrom into the other computer instead of switching the harddrives? What hardware is in the new linux comp? Whay won't it boot to the cdrom thats in it? It sounds like your really making this far harder than it need to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest anon Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 This thread belongs in "Other distro's" or "Installing MDK" Which is where im moving it to.:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted January 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 first, when I take out the linux harddrive and try to boot, it just shows '07 07 07 07 07 07' etc... second, I installed on the other comp because for some reason, it wouldn't install on this one...I dunno...the boot disc just didn't open the prog... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 This is because the MBR is overwritten but pointing to nowhere. You can fix this by different ways depending how you wanna boot. The easy way is from a windows boot CD. Boot into the CD but not setup and then do the fdisk /mbr This reinstalls the windows boot loader for this disk. I think what others are saying is you seem to have overcomplicated due to a initial problem. I guess when you installed MDK there was a problem and the boot loader (lilo) wasn't loaded properly. It was probably VERY easy to fix if you had asked the question then, we have done it for iothers so your not alone :D So decide whether you want two PC's or a single dual boot and you will get all the help you need here :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted January 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 (edited) fdisk /mbr isn't a command...but i found it...it was 'fixboot'...I'll see if it works... [edit] appears that it just recreated a default one...didn't prompt for linux...that's good...i'll try the comp I originally wanted again Edited January 12, 2004 by Urza9814 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 fdisk should still be on any Windows install CD. It might be 'hidden' sway in a directory somewhere though. Anyway, it appears to have reset the MBR on the disk so that working now. What you need to decide is how you want to dual boot. Windows can only boot windows so unless you use a third party app under windows like boot magic then you need to use lilo or grub. You can read windows disks under linux but not the other way round so you need to be in linux to set up lilo to work. The lilo.conf on the existing disk should be OK and you can boot into Linuix with both HDD's installed by using the Mandrake install disk and selecting F1 for options and then rescue. Before you do this it can be a good idea to write down what partition is what. Your PC will almost definately have two IDE channels (using irq 14 and 15) and in harddriver speak these are referred to as Primary Master and Slave and Secondary Master and slave. The primary master is hard disk 1 or hda in linux speak. This will have at least one partition.... The first partition in linux is hda1 ... then you have hda2 etc. Remember primary and extended partitions from Win/DOS. This is a hangover from DOS and DOS/Win can only boot from a primary PARTITION These would be called C: in Win/DOS Linux is more flexible BUT keeps the convention for compatibility. You can have 4 primary partitions under DOS (i.e. C,D,E,F) BUT this is unusual. Usually you have a extended partition. This look the same under DOS/Win unless using fdisk. In Linux Primary partitions are hda1,hda2,hda3,hda4 and the secondary (extended) partitions are hda5-9 Thus the first extended partition is hda5 etc. In order to do this DOS created a hda2 (or second primary partition which it called an extended partition, this is a container for the hda5-9) Also under linux swap is an empty partition, its unformatted space. You can find the partition info under Windows for your windows stuff OR work it out under linux. I'd really recommend knowing all this before starting off, it can make life easier later. If you have say a windows disk with a primary (boot/windows partition) and a linux disk with /home /boot and / on different partitions then map it all out on paper.... You need to know the / and the /boot specifically. The second disk is hdb with partitions hdb1-9 accordingly (if its connected to the primary slave If it was the secondary master then it would be hdc and hdd if the secondary slave. Hope that help for now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted January 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 Aight, here's where i'm at now...i fixed that comp, but, as i had from the start, i want linux on this one...I have the harddrive in this comp (in the floppy drive :-P sticking out both ends...I don't have what I need to install it correctly...and never plan on getting it) and it's hooked up on the master end of the cable (couldn't get it the other way)...and linux should still be installed, with a boot sector on that disc, but when I boot up, windows just comes up, and when I put in the floppy, it says whatever in dos (something about linux and the copyright...w/e it says right before the install screen), but it freezes there, which is why I installed on the other comp in the first place...Anyways, anyone know what could cause this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted January 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 oops...it'd probably help to know my system specs: Compaq Presario 5000 I'm just gonna post exactly what's on the side: -Intel Celeron Processor 667 MHz - 64MB total system memory - up to 11MB allocated as video memory - 15GB hard drive [my linux one is 30] That should be all there that you need...it's windows 98 SE, and I've tried re-installing the MBR... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pzatch Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 Make sure any plug and play is turned off in the bios first. Make sure any extra usb stuff is unplugged for now. Does it say something like this? [yourusername@localhost yourusername]$ If so your in linux already. If you can boot to the cdrom use the first Mandrake install disk in rescue mode to reinstall lilo to the MBR of the hard drive. If you can't boot to the cdrom try making anouther floppy to cdrom boot disk using the image on the first install disk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted January 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 (edited) first off, I don't have the CD-Roms...I'm using the DL version...all USB things are unplugged, an no, it doesn't say '[yourusername@localhost yourusername]$'...it says something like 'SYSLINK version _____' then 'Mandrake linux' 'copyright _______'...something somewhat similar to that...and I don't have a plug and play OS thing on my BIOS...it's not on the BIOS of my other comp either...it worked fine on there... I'm gonna TRY installing it on the other comp, just on a single drive, then I'll switch when I need to, if I can't get it the other way Edited January 13, 2004 by Urza9814 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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