I think I may have a problem with my Master Boot loader. I have a dual boot system with Mandrake 9.1 and Windows 98SE. My modem is not yet working in Linux, (but that is another problem) and I was online in windows. I have norton installed on my computer. All of a sudden I had a window popup that said I had changed my master boot record. It gave me the options: Yes, keep the change I really did mean to, No change it back and scan for viruses, and then I think there was a choice to ignore it. Because I was in online and not messing with any settings at the time I didn't think i wanted the change. So i chose no and scanned for viruses. Norton scanned my whole computer and found no viruses. This morning when I went to my computer an application had froze in windows (normal thing for windows) and I found it necessary to restart my computer. Then things went downhill. I can no longer load Windows, and I can only get to Linux with a startup disk. When i start my computer it goes thru the checking for the primary and secondary master and slave drives. It then searches for the boot record first from the cdrom, then from the Floppy. Then it searches from IDE-0 and says ok. Then the screen prints out L 99 99 99.... and puts a couple lines of 99 on the screen. It seems like it is trying to work, and then it prints out more 99's. I have tried to start windows from the windows start up disk, but it never gets there. I usually end up with a A:/ prompt. I checked the directory on my hard drive and everything is still there.

Does anyone have any ideas of how I can fix this and get back to being able to start up Linux and Windows with no disks?

Thanks in advance for any help.

ok... Noton kill out your lilo who was on MBR. Don't trust any Nreton windoze things : Virus are no longer in MBR, most of time. you mean you were able to boot linux with floppy? then the solution is easy... boot your linux then, just type "lilo", this should reinstall lilo on your MBR.

Do you have your install CDs handy? The easiest way to rectify the situation is to boot from Mandy install CD-1, press F1 and enter rescue. This will take you, surprise, to a rescue menu. You can 're-install your bootloader', but I prefer 'mount your partitions' (or whatever) and then 'go to console'. Doing this, you can 'chroot /mnt' or wherever it mounted your partitions, and then type 'lilo'. You should see it print up your old boot menu options (linux, linux-nonfb, dos, etc) and you should be set. Type 'reboot' and eject the disc.