Installed XP, now Linux can't boot :'(
 

I just installed WinXP (eh, a guy has to play to his favorite MMORPG now and then) and it fubared my mbr...

I had a boot disk (using syslinux)

My boot partition is on /dev/hda3
my root partition is on /dev/hda8
I'm running Gentoo Linux (and love it!)

Now when booting with my boot disk (syslinux) I get the following errors (not all the details, only the thing I scribbled down):

hda8: bad access: block=2, count=2
unable to read superblock
...
Kernel panic: No init found


(and there's something about 'umount /initrd/proc failed=2)


Here's what I have in my syslinux.cfg file (hdd is my burner):
Hopefully you guys will be able to help me out, cuz now I'm stuck in WinXP and I don't like it as much as my Gentoo :confused:

did you use ntfs fs while installing xp

Ive seen this b4. Apparently xp doesnt like sharing the system w/ other os's. I had to install xp first, then go back and install linux on top, and use lilo to pick which os i wanted to boot.

I have always had this problem while re-installing WinXP. The best way I could find to get around it was to use two seperate hard drives. When installing Windoze, I have to physically unplug the master drive. This way the doze Mbr is written to the slave drive instead of over the mbr on the master like it will always try to do.

In your case, you could always try using another boot manager, this will overwrite your new windoze one, and autodetect your operating systems. When you do finally get back into linux, you can reinstall lilo/grub.

This has always worked for me in the past.

Good luck

hmm, sounds like the number for you root partition changed, boot into rescue mode and do an 'fdisk -l" to show what partitions are what, and then try to find out which is your / partition and if necessary your /boot partition then update your boot loader

it's look mbr was remove by windows xp. you can boot your linux again with boot manager or under windows xp you must edit boot.ini
1. you must boot your linux with disk and copy bootsect.lnx into windows xp partition.
2. edit your boot.ini right click on my computer icon -> properties -> advance tab -> setting button -> edit button add this command line .............
c:\bootsect.lnx="YOUR LINUX LABEL"
and then remove /fastdetect
i hope that can help u...