Can't boot into Win98 after installing MDK 9.0

[Guest wilburpan]

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?

 

Not exactly. PM rebooted into DOS, repartitioned, then stoppped. I rebooted, saw that the partitions were okay, then went ahead and installed MDK 9.0

 

2. If you have the PM boot floppies, did you try booting with them and,if so, were any errors reported when you did?

 

Did not try this.

 

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:

Just a blinking cursor.

 

Thanks,

Wilbur Pan

[Guest duir66]

After reading about all of your complications I would have to say that if I were you I would opt for the simplest solution. Wipe the hard drive and start from scratch using ML9 disk druid in expert mode to create the fat partition.

 

:(

[DragonMage]

You know... this is why I don't like partition magic for resizing partition that has data/files in it.. Somehow, something is always screwed up.. Once I used partition magic to make my fat32 partition smaller in order to install win2k and even though the partition seems to look fine from windows, some of the data is actually screwed up when checked with norton disk doctor or checkdisk.

 

If I were you.. I backup the data, wiped the hd clean, and reinstall everything (windows and linux) from scratch. Less problems in the future.

[pmpatrick]

At he end of the day, I think a reinstall will be necessary as suggested above. Here's some things you might want to try if your feeling adventuterous. Before doing anything, back up your data on an external medium first since you could loose it all.

 

Everything seems to point to your partition table having been altered in a way which makes the windows partition inaccessible to either windows or DOS. I don't think it was PM that caused the problem since you were able to reboot into windows after the operation was completed. I also don't think it's a matter of file corruption caused by PM, since that probably would not render the windows partition inaccessible in DOS(i.e. from the windows boot disk).

 

After backing up your data, make a linux boot floppy as I suggested in my previous post. Do the fdisk /mbr thing to remove lilo. The following suggestions are designed to force a rewrite of the partition table by a windows friendly utility, hopefully in a form that will allow windows or DOS to see the windows partition. That's the idea anyway, maybe you can think of other ways to accomplish the same thing:

 

1. Run PM off the flopies and see if any errors are reported. If errors are reported and PM offers to correct them, answer yes. Reboot and see if you can get windows going.

 

2.If no errors are reported, look and see how PM sees your windows partition. That may be a good indication of how windows sees it. Note anything unusual(e.g. incorrect file system designated) and compare how PM sees the partitions with how linux sees them. If PM can see the windows partition and nothing seems out of sorts, try enlarging or shrinking the windows partition with PM which will cause a rewrite of the partition table. Reboot and see if it worked.

 

If these don't work, go the reinstall route

[pmpatrick]

Just got home and ran PM from the flopies on my system. One other thing you might also want to try before resizing the windows partition is the "check partition" option in PM. Right click on the windows partition and select this option from the drop down menu. It might be able to fix things or give some helpful info.

 

Good luck.

[Cannonfodder]

Also, if you are planning to wipe the drive, I still say you should uninstall linux, and then see if you can access windows. It might clean itself up :) You can go to www.partimage.org to download a bootable CD that allows you to make a compressed ghost image of any partition. Use it to ghost your win98 and see if you can burn it to CD (not sure of size of your partition). Then uninstall linux and fdisk /mbr and see if you can access windows. If so, reinstall linux in expert mode. If not, you can just go ahead and wipe the drive and create a fat32 partition. Then restore from the win98 backup. If you can't backup the win98, you will just have to reinstall win98 from scratch. However, afterwards, you can use partimage to make a backup (since you will have the hard drive space for it). Try to get win98 totally setup with any customized settings.

[Guest wilburpan]

Thanks for all the suggestions and help. After much reading, I finally convinced myself that I would not kill my Linux partition by reformatting my C: drive. I know that this should be obvious, but when it's the first time you've tried anything like this, it's still scary.

 

I booted into Linux, copied all of my data to the Linux partition from the Windows partition, then booted into Windows from my boot floppy, and reformatted my C: drive. I checked to see that I could still boot into Linux. I reinstalled Windows, and after I am done I plan to transfer my data back to the Windows partition from Linux.

 

Dual booting works like a charm now.

 

Thanks to everyone.