Hi,
I am very sad that I could not load any kernel at all.

Previously, I installed three OS on my x86 machine.
Disk0 (hd0) has 4 partitions:
(hd0, 0), Primary Partition, Active, NTFS, WinXP Pro installed.
(hd0, 1), Logic Partition, NTFS,
(hd0, 2), Logic Partition, NTFS,
(hd0, 3), Logic Partition, NTFS,

Disk1 (hd1) had 9 partitions:
(hd1, 0), FAT, Win2000 installed, but not active, not bootable.
(hd1, 1), SWAP for Red Hat 9.
(hd1, 2), / for Red Hat 9.
In fact I am not quite sure about the partition number of these two partitions. But the positions of cylinders are there, i.e. between (hd1, 0) FAT and my Fedora Core 4.
there are three partitions for my Fedora Core 4 for swap, boot, and root respectively.
(hd1, 3), SWAP for Fedora Core 4;
(hd1, 4), Boot for Fedora Core 4; (I am not sure about whether partition 4 is boot or partition 3 is boot)
(hd1, 5), / for Fedora Core 4
(hd1, 6), FAT, Partition Type 0xb
(hd1, 7), FAT, Partition Type 0xb.

I used GRUB as boot loader. GRUB resides in boot partition for Fedora Core. Three possible loadable kernels:
1) Fedora Core 4
2) Others (WinXP)
3) Red Hat 9

This afternoon, I entered WinXP, and try to manage my disk using Windows Disk Manager (RightClick 'My Computer'-->'Manage'-->'Disk Management'). I thought that I seldom use Red Hat 9, So i delete the 2nd and 3rd partition of the second disk, i.e. (hd1, 1) and (hd1, 2) which had Red Hat 9 OS. The WinXP gave me no warnings about possible kernel loading error.

In WinXP, after I delete the two partitions, they merged into one. And I created another parition for it, and formatted it. When it was formatting, I surfed internet. Then it suddenly changed to BLUE screen and computer restarted.

Then it reached the prompt
grub>

And the computer stuck there without displaying the kernel loading options.

I pressed TAB following the instructions. I tried root command.

grub>root (hd1, 0)
FAT filesystem, partition type 0xb

grub>root (hd1, 1)
Unknown filesystem, partition type 0xf

grub>root (hd1, 2)
No such partition

grub>root (hd1, 3)
No such partition

grub>root (hd1, 4)
FAT filesystem, partition type 0xb

grub>root (hd1, 5)
ext2fs filesystem, partition type 0x83

grub>root (hd1, 6)
unknown filesystem, partition type 0x82

grub>root (hd1, 7)
ext2fs filesystem, partition type 0x83

grub>root (hd1, 8)
FAT filesystem, partition type 0xb

grub>root (hd1, 9)
FAT filesystem, partition type 0xb

It seems that the partition numbers increased, but in fact (hd1, 2) and (hd1, 3) don't exist at all.

Maybe the system cannot find the grub.conf ???
How can I modify the grub.conf accordingly after I remove the two partitions and create the new partition?
What do i need to do to let the system read the grub.conf and display the kernel loading options?

Please help. Both disks contains files related to my projects.

Regards,
Xinjun

Hello there,
boot your system using the bootable cd of fedora core or rescue floppy( if you have one ).
go into rescue mode by typing there "linux rescue"
then follow the instructions to reinstall grub into MBR
.......
now check the entries you get after running
fdisk -l
and the entries in yoiur
grub.conf

actually there is mistmatching between these entries since you deleted two partitions and made them one.

correct the entries in grub.conf and your system will start working again

regards

Thank you very much. I used Win98 disk to reset mbr. So now I can enter WinXP.
I will find the FC4 bootable CD to do the rest.
Thank you very much.

Regards,
Xinjun

Hi suudra,

I failed to install grub into MBR.
I tried to repair the FC4 and install new grub boot loader. The system report that "No kernel package is installed, and the boot loader configuration will not be changed.".

Then i try to install grub into MBR.
grub>find /sbin/init
(hd1, 7)

Why (hd0, 0) is not there?

when run
grub>setup (hd0)
"/boot/grub/stage1" exists... No
"/grub/stage1" exists... No

but in fact before i entered grub, I can see thoese files in sh-3.00.
sh-3.00#ls /boot/grub/
device.map e2fs_stage1_5 fat_stage1_5 ffs_stage1_5 e2fs_stage1_5 grub.conf iso9660_stage1_5 jfs_stage1_5 menu.lst minix_stage1_5 stage1 stage2 reiserfs_stage1_5 splash.xpm.gz ufs2_stage1_5 vstafs_stage1_5 xfs_stage1_5


Seems that I could not install the grub again. What may be the possible reason?
This morning, i use fdisk /mbr command reset MBR. Is it because of that?


Regards,
Xinjun

Just now I fixed the problem.
The solution is to use 'grub-install' instead of grub>setup.

In sh-3.00, run grub-install.
sh-3.00#grub-install

Then modify the /boot/grub/grub.conf to adjust the boot partition number.
change "root (hd1,7)" to "root (hd1,5)". The name "root" is a little misleading. In fact, (hd1,5) is the boot partition, not the root partition.

Thank you Ruudra,

Regards,
Xinjun

my pleasure
U may like to visit
this

my college friends are running this site.
It really has some very basic topics about linux, specially for newbies.
"recover GNU/LINUX bootloader" topic is also there...........have a look at that.

regards

The boot partition, usually mounted as /boot, is the place where the Linux kernel image (vmlinuz...), and grub itself, is found.

The root partition, always mounted as /, is the anchor of the entire filesystem. /sbin/init must be found there.

These are customarily separate partitions.

Notice that the grub boot loader numbers partitions upward from zero, while Linux refers to the first partition as number one. So, (hd1,0) is /dev/hda1.

When you find that you've got the partition information all bolluxed up, having a live CD to boot from is extremely helpful. You need to be able to look at how the partitions are set up, and check for overlaps and confirm what is actually on them.

A very helpful, well-done site.