I am trying to mount a windows drive that I used to be able to access.

When I try to mount as usual I get this error:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda5,
or too many mounted file systems

What does this mean?

It means you need to tell the command what type of filesystem is on the drive.'

Try mount -t msdos /dev/hda5 /mnt

Or whatever... the -t flag might be different based on what format the windows drive is in. Is the drive compressed or anything?

I tried mount -t msdos /dev/hda5 /mnt, and received the same error.

Now what

What filesystem type is the windows partition? You might substitute vfat or ntfs accordingly.

Are you still able to boot into the windows partition? Have you made any changes lately?

I am not able to boot to the windows partition, my lilo hangs with DOS loading then L?

I have not made changes, however I tried a homemade Knoppix CD, it hung when I tried to boot from it. Now I cannot boot to my Windows option from lilo.

I switched to GRUB and when I try to boot to Windows I get this error:

Booting 'DOS'

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Loading stage2Read Error

What does this mean?

try posting ur grub

what file exactly should i post, and where is it located?

This is my grub.conf"

#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img
title DOS
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Looks like knoppix messed up grub in the mbr of the windows drive. Boot rh install cd #1 into rescue mode and:

grub
root (hd1,0)
setup (hd0)
quit

then reboot.

I used the RH9 in rescue mode then:

grub
root (hd1,0)
setup (hd0)
quit

rebooted and the same thing happened

this is my fdisk -l listing if it helps

Disk /dev/hda: 30.7 GB, 30750031872 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3738 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 2537 20378421 c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda2 2538 3738 9647032+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 2538 3738 9647001 b Win95 FAT32

Disk /dev/hdb: 10.2 GB, 10262568960 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1247 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hdb2 14 1117 8867880 83 Linux
/dev/hdb3 1118 1247 1044225 82 Linux swap

Hmmm... odd.

root (hd1,0) points grub to look for menu.lst, stage files etc. in /dev/hdb1, which I presume is your /boot.

setup hd(0) then installs the grub first stage bootloader (encoded with this pointer) into the mbr of /dev/hda.


I'm not quite certain what the stage2 error refers to. I think that it refers to a copy of the dos/win stage1 bootloader (in other words the original mbr) that is saved when grub is originally installed. Possibly that is corrupt. If you have a win95 boot disk with ms fdisk on it then you might try doing fdisk /mbr

then do the

grub
root (hd1,0)
setup (hd0)
quit

again. That should put things back in order if that is the problem. Another possibility is that the stage2 file in /boot/grub/ is corrupt. A clean copy of this file should be on your system, try /usr/share/grub or something like that. Try replacing the one in /boot/grub.

I'm not sure it is a GRUB problem as I cannot mount the partitions in Windows manually either. If GRUB were pointing to the wrong place I would think I could still manually mount.

That being said...I tried what you suggested, fdisk /mbr redid everything...no change

The only other grub.conf around was in /etc and that was identical to my /boot/grub/ version.

I'm truly confused. And I thought Knoppix was so innocent and friendly.....

I'm a little confused here. I thought you were unable to boot windows via grub. That was what I was trying to solve. Maybe it would be a good idea if you would describe the current state of your problems. What works/what doesn't.

Actually I cannot mount the partitions at all any more. Even when I ran DOS command fdisk /mbr, it would not boot into Windows.

I am assuming that the error is beyond grub, in other words even if grub did everything correctly the partition would not boot.