Hey everyone, I have been using Mandrake and SuSe for about 3 months, but Linux struck my fancy back in 2000 with RedHat. I used it for about 2 months, but I got fed up with the interface. Anyways, I have winxp installed on my first HDD (hda), which is partitioned in half. Its a 120GB drive. I have 10GB for C:, and 110GB for D:. My second HDD is an 80GB drive. This only has Mandrake 10.0 installed on it. Now here is my problem... I need to be able to boot into windows to play games (i'm in a BF:V clan), use Photoshop CS (learning GIMP), and to develop in Visual Studio 2003. I set up my BIOS to boot to hdb because one of my friends said that I need to boot to the second drive which has linux on it, then select windows, and it will boot to the first drive. When I select windows, it just gives me a black screen with a blinking underscore ( _ ). I booted off my winxp disc, and did a fixboot and fixmbr. I then rebooted, switched my BIOS to boot from the windows drive, and got "Error loading operating system". I then set BIOS to boot to the second drive again, and selected windows. I STILL got the blinking underscore. I'm using LILO, but after i get done typing this im going to switch to GRUB. I have no idea what to do, and I'm getting really mad. Is there any way that someone can help me? I got invited to a LAN today, and im not able to go because f***ing windows wont boot. If i had it my way, I would not ever TOUCH windows again (kind of hard seeing as how im a technician and a programmer for a computer company that does onsites for businesses, and i love games). HELP ME!!!! I have no idea what to do, and I need to boot into windows. sorry for the long post, but I need to vent. Thanks guys keep up the good work.

dual booting shouldn't be very difficult, you just need to tell lilo that you have another OS you'd like it to boot. it sounds like you wiped out the boot sector on hda, your windows machine. below, i've posted an old lilo.conf from when i was dual booting, you can see two different linux kernels and the last entry is to boot to windows. make sure that you have a similar entry, and that it has that line: table = /dev/hda

if that is already in place, i'm not sure what to suggest. i assume linux is booting ok? also, a question that might help us narrow the search: when you installed lilo, did you choose to overwrite the MBR? or install to the boot sector of one of your drives?



# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
#boot = /dev/fd0
boot = /dev/hda
message = /boot/boot_message.txt
prompt
timeout = 1200

# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hdb5
label = Linux
read-only
image = /boot/vmlinuz.old
root = /dev/hdb5
label = LinuxOld
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# DOS bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hda1
label = Windows
table = /dev/hda
# DOS bootable partition config ends

Hey man thanks for responding so quickly. I looked at my lilo.conf file, and this is what it had in it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
# File generated by DrakX/drakboot
# WARNING: do not forget to run lilo after modifying this file

boot=/dev/hdb
map=/boot/map
default="linux-p3-smp-64GB"
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
disk=/dev/hdb bios=0x80
disk=/dev/hda bios=0x81
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux"
root=/dev/hdb1
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount splash=silent"
vga=788
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux-nonfb"
root=/dev/hdb1
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-i686-up-4GB
label="linux-i686-up-4GB"
root=/dev/hdb1
initrd=/boot/initrd-i686-up-4GB.img
append="devfs=mount splash=silent"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-p3-smp-64GB
label="linux-p3-smp-64GB"
root=/dev/hdb1
initrd=/boot/initrd-p3-smp-64GB.img
append="devfs=mount splash=silent"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-smp
label="linux-smp"
root=/dev/hdb1
initrd=/boot/initrd-smp.img
append="devfs=mount splash=silent"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.25-2mdk
label="2425-2"
root=/dev/hdb1
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.25-2mdk.img
append="devfs=mount splash=silent"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="failsafe"
root=/dev/hdb1
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="failsafe devfs=nomount"
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label="windows"
table=/dev/hda
map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81
to=0x80
other=/dev/fd0
label="floppy"
unsafe
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Now, i didnt know what this is:
map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81
to=0x80
so, i took it out.
now, lilo says this:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
# File generated by DrakX/drakboot
# WARNING: do not forget to run lilo after modifying this file

boot=/dev/hdb
map=/boot/map
default="linux-p3-smp-64GB"
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
disk=/dev/hdb bios=0x80
disk=/dev/hda bios=0x81
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux"
root=/dev/hdb1
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount splash=silent"
vga=788
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux-nonfb"
root=/dev/hdb1
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-i686-up-4GB
label="linux-i686-up-4GB"
root=/dev/hdb1
initrd=/boot/initrd-i686-up-4GB.img
append="devfs=mount splash=silent"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-p3-smp-64GB
label="linux-p3-smp-64GB"
root=/dev/hdb1
initrd=/boot/initrd-p3-smp-64GB.img
append="devfs=mount splash=silent"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-smp
label="linux-smp"
root=/dev/hdb1
initrd=/boot/initrd-smp.img
append="devfs=mount splash=silent"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.25-2mdk
label="2425-2"
root=/dev/hdb1
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.25-2mdk.img
append="devfs=mount splash=silent"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="failsafe"
root=/dev/hdb1
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="failsafe devfs=nomount"
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label="windows"
table=/dev/hda
other=/dev/fd0
label="floppy"
unsafe
-----------------------------------------------------------------
but, it still doesnt work. I still get the blinking underscore. My boss just called me and said that he moved the deadline for the website i was supposed to do in flash, to tommorow. I NEED to get this fixed today! I am pulling my hair out here. I am willing to try ANYTHING to get this to work. HELP!!!

Damn what a MESS!

It looks like you've installed every kernel under the sun, when you only need one.

You should really uninstall any unused kernels.

Anyway:

label="windows"
table=/dev/hda
map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81
to=0x80

OK the lines which read:

map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81
to=0x80

Basically logically swap the HARDWARE assignments, which is something Linux can do.

You are seeing this because of the somewhat crazy way you are booting to the second hard drive.

I don't know who gave you the info about doing this but all you needed to do was set up a small /boot partition (say of about 32-64 MEGS) on your first drive to house the kernel, and then you could put Linux anywhere you please.

The only restriction is that /boot must be a primary partition, not an EXTENDED one... (not the same as Linux EXT partition TYPES...).

Anyway it is highly possible that the above entries are to blame for the problem.

Open a root prompt and

cd /etc
cp lilo.conf lilo.conf.backup

Then edit lilo.conf using whatever editor you are comfortable with.

remove these lines

map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81
to=0x80

Save the file and type

lilo

at the root prompt.

(O NOT reboot if you get an error, if you do get an error restore the copy you made and run lilo again.)

Then try shutting down and rebooting your system.

ok, i tried what you said, and it still didnt work. is there any way that i can create a /boot partition on my windows drive to house the kernel? windows is hda, and linux is hdb. i did a repair on windows hoping that it would fix the problem, but it didnt. i have no idea what to do now, and im getting ready to just format everything and start over. this is hell. is there anything else that i should be trying?

OK i uninstalled the kernel's that i dont need. now im only using the 2.4 kernel. I am going to need to upgrade to 2.6 so that i can use nvidia drivers, but that will come when windows actually boots. i need to get this done ASAP. Thanks.

Eh, /dev/hda is the entire hard drive, not a partition on it.

Where is Windows?

Usually it's /dev/hda1

To find out, as root

fdisk -l /dev/hda

And NO you cannot create a /boot in the Windows partition. That's the whole point.

The bootloader needs to find the kernel in a PRIMARY partition or else Linux will not load. Once the kernel is loaded, the rest of Linux can be anywhere on your system. Linux is not picky.

One thing you can do is this, but it's a bit extreme.

1) Make a Linux boot floppy.

2) Test it and make sure that you can get back to Linux using the floppy. This is crucial!

3) Put the Windows XP installation CD in the drive and boot from it.

Now, you have two choices.

a) Start a recovery console and from the recovery console type

fdisk /mbr

and see if you get Windows up when you reboot.

b) Re-install Windows. DO NOT let it delete or format the existing partition(s) when asked, but rather choose UPGRADE when give the choice.

This will re-install Windows but will require that you provide any missing drivers.

c) Your next level of recourse is to do the same, if the above doesn't work, and then tell it to INSTALL windows (again NOT deleting or reformatting existing partitions) into it's existing location.

This will perform a CLEAN install of windows. This means that while all of your data files will be preserved NONE of your existing software will work.

All of your software will have to be re-installed, however the old files will still exist in \Program Files. Only the \Windows directory gets cleared.

OK i will try that. I am on linux right now, and it boots fine. i tried fixmbr on the windows cd, but it didnt fix my problem. i will try fdisk /mbr. thanks.

OK it still doesnt work after trying to fix the mbr. i tried a repair on windows, but that doesnt work either. i dont know what to do. is there anyone out there that can help? please!

What do you mean "it doesn't work"?

1) Does the Windows installer find the existing XP partition?

2) When you tried fdisk /mbr did you get an error message?

3) After doing the above do you still see the Lilo boot prompt?

the windows installer does find the existing xp partiton, fdisk /mbr doesnt work. that is for win98 etc. you have to use fixmbr and fixboot, yes lilo still comes up. everything runs the same as it did before. linux boots fine, xp doesnt. windows is on hda, linux on hdb. would it be easier to fix the problem if i were running grub?

Argh yes about fdisk.

The situation is that you still have Lilo taking over the boot and in turn because Lilo is not properly configured or pointing to the wrong thing you cannot get to XP.

The thing to do is to get Windows back up and running, then worry about the Lilo configuration.

So go ahead and run fixmbr from the recovery console.

What happens when you try this?

Re: Grub

No.

well, i ran fixmbr AND fixboot, and when i try to boot just windoze, i get "error loading operating system".... i dont know if this means that im f***ed or what. i can still access my data from my D drive in linux, so i guess the only thing to do is see if i can backup my registry from linux so that my programs in windows will work, and format C:. my windows setup is C = windows, D = all of my programs, files, etc. I installed all of my games and programs to D, and C is just windows. I really dont feel like formatting, because if a repair on windows, fixmbr, and fixboot doesnt work, i have no idea what to do. formatting and reinstalling is basically a repair. there HAS to be something wrong with my windows mbr or boot record. i re-wrote them, but it still doesnt work. in lilo.conf, i tried switching around hda and hda1 until all possible configurations were exhausted. i even put in my mandrake disc and typed 'rescue' and reinstalled the windows bootloader from there. NOTHING works. hopefully a super linux user (lol) will stumble upon this with a solution. thank you guys so much for trying to help. l really appreciate it. wow, this turns me even MORE away from windows. Thanks guys, ill keep trying more things that i dream up to fix this.

A "super Linux user" will not help as this is NOT a Linux problem.

I wanted you to reset the MBR to eliminate Linux from this altogether... which you have.

So it appears that either:

a) Your XP partition is highly corrupt
b) Your system has had it's LBA settings modified so now the windows boot loader cannot find the windows partition.
c) Key Windows files are not being updated or replace by the upgrade/re-install process.

I would suggest that you grab Bart's super PE disk off the net.

This is like a Live Linux CD, but it brings up a CD based form of Windows.

You can use it to back up your existing Windows partitions before blowing them away with a reformat and re-install.

Afterwards you can restore your data files from the backup.

Try Bootit NG. Maybe your partition is screwed
and this is a great way to fix it.
Could you post your lilo.conf as it is now?
I don't believe you lost anything.
I think your lilo.conf is misconfigured.