Hi im having some trouble installing mandrake 10.1

i have:

athlon XP3200 processor
corsair TWINX1024-3200C2PRO ram (1Gb)
Radeon 9800Pro Video card
DFI Lanparty NFII Ultra B Motherboard
2 Western Digital Raptor 36 Gb SATA Hard drives on raid-0 (silicon image 3114 controller)

...ok so I installed Mandrake from cd on blank hdds... I dont get any errors there, except my hard drives are recognized as two hard drives instead of 1...(hoping for raid-0). after restart I get the L 99 99 99... error. I have tried reinstalling the bootloader, but no luck. I can install on one hard drive with raid disabled.. so i think its an issue with LILO and my raid setup... but im not so sure how to fix it Plz help me...anyone...I'd like to get a working operating system by the end of the week. My windows 2000 cd is scratched to pieces Thanks

try install lilo in the MBR, this should solve the problem most of the times...

greetz,
.-=~ iluvatar ~=-.

its is on MBR I tried grub... but it just froze at GRUB with a blinking cursor no errors. I tried editing the LILO.conf file from rescue. but Im not really sure how to. Has anyone had this problem!!? I cant be the only one...

The 99 error means it cannot find the second stage usually the boot map. There are a number of threads on this here at LQ and many articles on the net re lilo. You need to make sure lilo.conf is correctly configured and then run lilo again to load it on the mbr;

some explanations;

When LILO loads itself, it displays the word "LILO". Each letter is printed
before or after performing some specific action. If LILO fails at some
point, the letters printed so far can be used to identify the problem. This
is described in more detail in the technical overview.

Note that some hex digits may be inserted after the first "L" if a
transient disk problem occurs. Unless LILO stops at that point, generating
an endless stream of error codes, such hex digits do not indicate a severe
problem.

(<nothing>) No part of LILO has been loaded. LILO either isn't installed
or the partition on which its boot sector is located isn't active.
L <error> ... The first stage boot loader has been loaded and started,
but it can't load the second stage boot loader. The two-digit error
codes indicate the type of problem. (See also section "Disk error
codes".) This condition usually indicates a media failure or a geometry
mismatch (e.g. bad disk parameters, see section "Disk geometry").
LI The first stage boot loader was able to load the second stage boot
loader, but has failed to execute it. This can either be caused by a
geometry mismatch or by moving /boot/boot.b without running the map
installer.
LIL The second stage boot loader has been started, but it can't load
the descriptor table from the map file. This is typically caused by a
media failure or by a geometry mismatch.
LIL? The second stage boot loader has been loaded at an incorrect
address. This is typically caused by a subtle geometry mismatch or by
moving /boot/boot.b without running the map installer.
LIL- The descriptor table is corrupt. This can either be caused by a
geometry mismatch or by moving /boot/map without running the map
installer.
LILO All parts of LILO have been successfully loaded.