GRUB loader messed up
 

Hi Guys,

I messed up my grub.conf file by writing this line into it

hdc=ide-cd

ever since I did it I can't load grub. I realise how stupid it was but unfortunetaly it's already done so now I have to find the way out of this. When I restart the computer, what it does is it starts loading grub and then it gets stuck. So now I can't get either into my linux or winxp.
I've got laptop without floppy, so advices like boot from floppy are irrelevant in my case. I've got bootable cds of booth linux and winxp, so I can actualy reinstall everything if I wanted to, but I don't want to loose my data on the HDD.

cheers
rf

:cry: :cry:

What distro are you using?

Most setup disks have a repair feature built into them, I know mine do, and so does winxp. Try booting into winxp, by reinstalling the loader. Then you can edit the boot.ini so it can boot linux.

From another forum:
Add this into boot.ini
c:\bootsect.lnx="YOUR LINUX LABEL"
and then remove /fastdetect

Hope it helps

I'm using RH9. I think problem is that GRUB probably messed up MBR as well. It seems that I'll have to reinstall everything from scratch.
Anyway, many thanks for help.

rf

Use Rescue Disk
 

You don't need to reinstall!!!
You can use your RH9 Install CD to fix GRUB.
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...escuemode.html

wait don't reinstall yet! I am guessing that you installed grub on the mbr, the most common way to install. All you need to do is take that line out, hdc=ide-cd. You have two options, the first being using your boot disk that redhat has you make during installation to get into linux. Then you can easily fix it. If you did not make a boot disk, you can use your first install cd to get into linux. Follow the directions, I think it will ask you to type "linux rescue" at the prompt, then you will need to type one other thing. The only thing about using this method is you will have to use vi (get the directions on the web) to edit grub.conf. once you are in the command line you will enter
#vi /boot/grub/grub.conf then you can edit your file.

THIS CAN BE FIXED, DON'T REFORMAT

Thanks a lot guys, particularly thank you shanenin, I can see now that you're right. BUT as I was trying all sort of different things I run some commands in dos mode and I saw my MBR was damaged. So I run FIXMBR which as I found later destroyed my NTFS table. So I had to format HDD and when I did it I saw lot of errors, surprisingly enough, not only in my MBR. So I fixed it but on the expens of REFORMATING HDD.

Thank you very much guys for all the advices.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FOR ALL OTHER NEWBIES TO LINUX, NEVER EVER PUT

hdc=ide-cd

LINE INTO YOUR GRUB.CONF FILE
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

rf

Don't reformat another time. Use FDISK /MBR right away to repair your MBR. Then proceed with GRUB.