Guest wilburpan Posted December 9, 2002 Report Share Posted December 9, 2002 I was hoping that someone can help me over this hurdle. Before you answer "do a google search", I have already gone that route, have read plenty about fdisk/mbr, but I cannot find an answer that seems to match my particular situation. I am trying to add MDK 9.0 to my laptop ruinning Win98SE. I want to have a dual boot system. My laptop has a 30GB HD, all one big C: fdrive before I started. This is what I did: 1. Repartition my HD with partition Magic to shrink the Win98 partition to 20 GB, and leave 10GB of free space to install MDK 9.0 2. Installed MDK 9.0, pretty much using the defaults for installation. Now, when I start up the computer, I get the menu to select which operating system to boot into. Linux boots up without any problem whatsoever! I can see my Windows partition from within Linux, and can copy and access all of my data. Yay! Here's the problem. When I try to boot into Windows, the computer just hangs. This is what Linux reports when I do fdisk -l: Disk /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc: 240 heads, 63 sectors, 3876 cylinders Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 * 1 2522 19066288+ c Win95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part2 2523 3876 10236240 5 Extended /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part5 2523 3266 5624608+ 83 Linux /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part6 3267 3299 249448+ 82 Linux swap /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part7 3300 3876 4362088+ 83 Linux If I am interpreting this correctly, my Win98 partition (part1) still exists on my hard drive, and it is marked as bootable. MDK 9.0 added three partitions for Linux on my machine (part5, part6, and part7). The part I don't inderstand is why fdisk is reporting part2, an extended partition that overlaps my linux partitions. From what I have seen so far, the part2 partition shouldn't be reported by fdisk on a dual boot system. Also, when I use the graphical partition manager from within Linux (Mandrake Control Center), it does not report the part2 extended partition. Any help restoring Windows boot capability to my machine would be appreciated. Thanks. Wilbur Pan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezroller Posted December 9, 2002 Report Share Posted December 9, 2002 there is something wrong with your lilo.conf file. you can find that in your /etc directory. Post the contents of that file here, and I think we can better help you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wilburpan Posted December 9, 2002 Report Share Posted December 9, 2002 Wow -- did not expect a reply so soon. Here's my lilo.conf file. It seems that the BBS software is stripping out the indents: boot=/dev/hda map=/boot/map default=linux keytable=/boot/us.klt prompt nowarn timeout=100 message=/boot/message menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw ignore-table image=/boot/vmlinuz label=linux root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi quiet" vga=788 read-only image=/boot/vmlinuz label=linux-nonfb root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi" read-only image=/boot/vmlinuz label=failsafe root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="devfs=nomount hdc=ide-scsi failsafe" read-only other=/dev/hda1 label=windows table=/dev/hda other=/dev/fd0 label=floppy unsafe Thanks again! Wilbur Pan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezroller Posted December 9, 2002 Report Share Posted December 9, 2002 awesome. that'll do! ok, you see this here: label=windows table=/dev/hda other=/dev/fd0 Thats what the lilo program will use to load windows for you. Now I have to ask, do you see a menu appear when you first turn on the computer? It should be a menu that has a few boot options. actually, anywhere that you see the label line in the lilo.conf file, that will be an option. If you are seeing the menu at boot, then you should just be able to just press the down arrow till you get to the windows one and hit enter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wilburpan Posted December 9, 2002 Report Share Posted December 9, 2002 I do see the menu, and it does have a line for windows. It is after I select the Windows option that my computer hangs. It goes to a text screen, a message pops up that says "Loading Windows...", and then my computer hangs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezroller Posted December 9, 2002 Report Share Posted December 9, 2002 interesting. do you have a windows 98 bootdisk we could use to see if the system will boot into windows? I just wanna see if we can isolate the problem a little more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wilburpan Posted December 9, 2002 Report Share Posted December 9, 2002 I made a Win98 boot floppy. Booting from the boot floppy gives me the A:> prompt, but I cannot get to the C: drive. I get an "invalid media type" error when I try to access the C: drive from the A:> prompt.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezroller Posted December 9, 2002 Report Share Posted December 9, 2002 Ouch...thats scary. tell you what, when I get to work tommorrow, I'll run this past the other techs that I work with and we'll see what we can come up with ok? They are much wiser than I!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtweidmann Posted December 9, 2002 Report Share Posted December 9, 2002 After you re-partitioned your drive did you try booting windows again? It could well be that you damaged your FAT partition. Linux is fairly reboust when it comes to mounting things, Windows tends to be more picky. Which would explain why Linux can still read the drive, but the boot floppy won't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmpatrick Posted December 9, 2002 Report Share Posted December 9, 2002 Let's try to get you back to square one. If you haven't already done so, make a boot floppy for linux by going into Mandrake Control Center (Start menu>Configuration >Mandrake Control Center). Type your root password at the prompt then tick Boot>Boot Disk. Put a floppy in the drive and tick build the disk. Test the floppy to make sure you can boot off the floppy into linux. Assuming you were able to successfully create a linux boot disk following the above(if not, don't go any further), next, rewrite your MBR by booting off a Win 98 boot disk and run the following command: fdisk /mbr This takes lilo off the MBR and rewrites it with window's MBR. You will still be able to access linux by using your boot floppy made above. Reboot and see if you can boot into windows. If you can , run Partition Magic and see if it reports any errors in your partition table. If it reports errors and asks if you want to correct them respond yes. I've noticed in the past that when I've used linux partitioning utilities and booted back into windows and ran Partition Magic, the program reports two errors for every partition created using the linux partitioning utility. I usually respond yes when the program offers to correct the errors and have had no further problems in either linux or windows. If you get this far and are able to boot into windows, post back and we can try to figure out how to reinstall lilo so you can boot into either windows or linux. Next, a few questions: 1. After you resized your windows partition with PM, did you test to see if you could boot back into windows(i.e. reboot into windows after the operation and before installing Mandrake)? 2. I notice you have a laptop. Many laptops come with a hidden partition from which you can restore windows. This is given in lieu of a CD restoration disk. Does your laptop have this kind of hidden partition? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted December 9, 2002 Report Share Posted December 9, 2002 Try this first.. Boot into linux and take a look at your windows partition. Can you see it? Should be located under /mnt/win_c. If the directory is empty or gives you errors then you can't see it. If you can't see it, then you have probably lost it or the partition table is corrupted. Another thing to try. Open a console and type diskdrake. Should give you a graphical representation of your hard drive. Any error messages? Stuff like "Can't work with partition table"? If so, let us know. Otherwise, several things you can try.. 1. Reinstall win98. You will need to boot into linux and use diskdrake to format the partition. Then use the windows boot floppy and fdisk /mbr to restore the default mbr. Install windows. When up and running, restore lilo with the mandrake cd 1 rescue options (Boot cd 1, hit f1, type rescue). 2. Uninstall mandrake and see if windows comes back. It may be a partition table issue. To uninstall, boot off of cd1 and install in expert mode. When you get to the partition table, delete the linux partitions. Attempt to format anything and it will save the partition table. Don't do the format though :) Do fdisk /mbr and see if windows is restored. If not, back to #1. At no time in any of these instructions should you use fdisk for anything more than fdisk /mbr. Fdisk is not compatible with linux and does not understand it. It may render your partition table totally unusuable and you will have another problem to deal with. I also recommend that you give up using partition magic. Use mandrake's diskdrake instead. And as I mentioned before, do not use any windows partition or disk manager while you have linux installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wilburpan Posted December 9, 2002 Report Share Posted December 9, 2002 Thanks for all the ideas. I've had a chance to try some things out, but I still haven't yet been able to boot into Win98. This is what happens: 1. If I boot into Linux, which goes off without a hitch, I can indeed see my Windows partition from Linux under /mnt/windows. My entire c: drive is there, and I can open files, etc. 2. If I boot off a Win98 floppy, it goes through a normal boot floppy procedure, then I get an A:> prompt. If I ty to access the C: drive from there, I get an "invalid media" error. If I then run fdisk /mbr and reboot, my computer hangs on me. Lilo does not load after running fdisk /mbr, so I know that it has been removed by that command. If I run fdisk and pick the option to report partitions, fdisk can see a windows partition. 3. I can get back to Linux by booting off of my installation CD and reinstalling LILO. I am still able to see my Windows partition through Linux, open files, etc. 4. A few more things: I did not try to reboot Windows after running Partition Magic. My laptop does not have a hidden partition for Windows restore. I have not yet tried rerunning Partition Magic because I have not been able to fully boot into Win98 to run it. Thanks, Wilbur Pan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted December 9, 2002 Report Share Posted December 9, 2002 Why don't you post your /etc/fstab file here and let us see how you have your system setup.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wilburpan Posted December 9, 2002 Report Share Posted December 9, 2002 Why don't you post your /etc/fstab file here and let us see how you have your system setup.. Here it is: /dev/hda5 / ext3 noatime 1 1 none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0 /dev/hda7 /home ext3 noatime 1 2 none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/scd0,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0 none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=auto,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0 none /proc proc defaults 0 0 /dev/hda6 swap swap defaults 0 0 I'm glad someone out there knows what this means. :? Wilbur Pan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmpatrick Posted December 10, 2002 Report Share Posted December 10, 2002 I don't see anything unusual in your /etc/fstab file. Your windows partition entry is exactly like mine. Now more questions: 1. As I recall, when using PM to resize the windows partition that contains window's root directory, PM reboots into DOS, performs the operation and then reboots back to windows. Did this occur? 2. If you have the PM boot floppies, did you try booting with them and,if so, were any errors reported when you did? 3.When you did the fdisk /mbr thing and tried to reboot into windows, did you get any error messages or just blinking cursor? Inquiring minds want to know. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.