Vista Screwed Me
 

Hello,
I haven't posted for along time beacause I have been getting the feel for Linux. I was running Xandros and Mandrivia along side my Windows XP. Then I got my Vista Beta. Well The beta was okay but I went to remove it by formating the partition I had it on and that is when my trouble started. From then on I could only get into my Mandrivia OS. My Win XP partition somehow got corrupted when I formated the Vista. I am thinking it is because I had files shared between the operating systems. Anyways I am reinstalling WinXP and I am unsure how to get a boot loader installed with Mandrivia 2006, it does not give you a reinstall boot loader option in the setup. I need help..


Thanks,

Dustin

Can't remember how it was with LiLo, but with Grub you probably just use grub-install. Google has tons of examples..

ill try and let you guys know what happens. I am reinstalling windows and such right now doing all the stupid updates etc.

Thanks,

Dustin

Sounds bad, by the way, if removing Vista corrupts an XP install..or more commonly, if removing any operating system corrupts some other one. A major bug, one might say :)

Or a planned feature depending on how much of a cynic you are....

Not meaning to sound like a prick towards the OP but cynical or not, sounds more like a user error to me.

The catch is that Vista will install it's boot loader (and a \Boot directory containing several files :rolleyes: ) onto the primary *active* FAT/NTFS partition on the first HDD present in the box.

I have a 1Gb partition at the start of my first HDD upon which I have FreeDOS (hey, DOS was my first OS and I still have lots of stuff for it ;) ). The RC1 trial of Vista pushed FreeDOS's kernel out of the way to make room for it's own bootloader. I was able to move the bootloader and the \Boot directory onto the partition with the rest of Vista and then boot it with LILO. (and if you want to know, I had to use a system floppy to restore my FreeDOS kernel).

So, at a guess, Vista can do damage on a system which currently has XP on the primary active partition of the first HDD. You'd probably have to use the Repair facility on an XP CD to allow XP to boot, then boot from a Linux CD or floppy and re-run LILO (or grub-install) to get back to a dual booting Linux/XP box.

before i removed vista i could do all of my operating systems. Xandros, Mandrivia 2006, Vista, and XP I removed Vista and that is when I stoped being able to get into XP. I decided to take off xandros just because I never used it heh. But anyways I have XP and Mandrivia 2006, thus i have to figure out what the install on the mandriva cd is called.

Thanks,

Dustin

heh. doesn't window$ suck!
That sounds like bad design to me.

I got it to work woohoo. Anyways thanks guys.