accidently installed slax 5.0 to hard drive

dav10631 · 12-17-2005, 01:48 PM

I had been playing around with SLAX 5. bootable cd thing.. (sorry i am VERY new to this.) well everything was fine until somewhow it was installed on my harddrive.now windows will NOT boot up and it even disabled the system restore function upon bootup. this would be ok if slax would actually load, now when it loads it says something about unable to load console. so i HAVE to use the boot disc to boot up into slax. is there anyway to boot up into windows or even uninstall slax comepltely. all of the files are still entacted in the windows folders and stuff. just the partition has been renamed :-( please any kind of suggestions..

Someone mentioned to create a boot floppy from another computer and include fdisk.exe on the disk then once booted use fdisk to remove the partition that has slax on it ? NOt sure if this will work

Dave

heltreko · 12-17-2005, 02:33 PM

You have to decide what you'd like to fix first. I.e. would you like to be able to boot windows or slax first?

If you wnat to fix slax you'd probably have to boot using the cd, reconfigure lilo (/etc/lilo.conf) and rerun lilo. If you'd like help with this I'd suggest you post your partitioning scheme (find it with /sbin/fdisk -l) and your /etc/lilo.conf.

I'd think the problem with windows is one of two things. Either your slax install was put before the windows install and windows usually only like sitting on the first primary partition. The other idea is that lilo installed in the mbr of your disk and lilo doesn't point to the right partition (or didn't include the windows boot option at all). If the partition placement is wrong you'll have to reconfigure lilo to be able to boot windows. If windows still is on the first primary partition you can remove lilo from mbr with either a bootable windows startdisk and run fdisk /mbr or with a windows CD and go into rescue mode and use /fixmbr.

Post again if you need more info.

Good luck.

dav10631 · 12-17-2005, 05:04 PM

ok here is what i got from /etc/lilo.conf:
boot = /dev/hda
prompt timeout = 20
bitmap=/boot/splash.bmp
change-rules reset vga = normal
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = current
label = slax read-write

and i am still unsure how to get my partitioning scheme? like i said i am very very new to linux. not sure if that helps you.

i would like to fix the problem with slax, however i would much rather be able to boot to windows. so.. id much rather solve the problem with windows rather than have slax working right.

dav10631 · 12-17-2005, 05:14 PM

ok found the partitioning scheme Disk /dev/hda: 82.3 GB, 82348277760 bytes 240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 10637 cylinders Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes
device boot start end blocks ID System
/dev/hda1 1 729 5511208+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda2 730 10637 74904480 7 HPFS/NTFS

hope this is what you were talking about

dav10631 · 12-17-2005, 05:18 PM

root@slax:~# /sbin/fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 82.3 GB, 82348277760 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 10637 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 729 5511208+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda2 * 730 10637 74904480 7 HPFS/NTFS

heltreko · 12-17-2005, 05:39 PM

Hi again

I'm not sure which partition slax is on and which is windows. Both have windows file systems. Do you remember where you put the install when you installed slax?

Replace your /etc/lilo.conf with this

Code:

boot = /dev/hda
prompt timeout = 20
bitmap=/boot/splash.bmp
change-rules reset vga = normal
# Windows bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hda1
  label = Windows1
  table = /dev/hda
# Slax
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = current
  label = slax read-write

Then run lilo and look on the output. should be something like

Code:

bash-3.00# lilo
Added Windows *
Added slax read-write

Try rebooting and tell us what happens. If it doesn't work change the windows part to

Code:

# Windows bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hda2
  label = Windows1
  table = /dev/hda

This changes where to look for windows (hda2 instead of hda1). Rerun lilo and reboot.

Edited the post for clarity.

dav10631 · 12-17-2005, 06:32 PM

ok i modified the lilo file as you specified and both options gave me no results. however im not sure what you mean when you say to run lilo.. so i may have done something wrong. but did try rebooting after i edited the lilo.conf file. and as far as i know windows is installed on the second partition (hda2) and slax is on the first partition (hda1). anything else i can try ?

thanks sooo much for your time.....

Dave

Erik_FL · 12-17-2005, 06:33 PM

If you have problems booting Windows XP you can sometimes boot using a boot floppy.

On some other Windows XP computer, format a floppy disk. It is important that you format the floppy, because that will write a boot block for Windows XP on the floppy disk. Put the following files on the floppy.

Code:

NTDETECT.COM
NTLDR
BOOT.INI

Some of the files are hidden, so you need to enable the options to display hidden and system files.

You may need to edit the BOOT.INI file if you created any partitions below the Windows XP partition.
Here is an example of what might be in the BOOT.INI file.

Code:

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

What I usually do when I make an emergency boot floppy is add menu entries for all the possible boot partitions. Change the menu timeout so you can select one of the choices.

Code:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Partition 1" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XP Partition 2" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="XP Partition 3" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="XP Partition 4" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Put the emergency boot floppy in the drive on the computer that won't boot. Make sure the BIOS is set to boot from the floppy first. Turn on the power or reset the computer. You should see the BOOT.INI menu from the floppy you created. Try booting the computer with each possible menu choice. If you find one that works, that will tell you where the Windows XP system is located.

You can also boot the Windows XP setup CD, and select the option to run the Recovery Console. That will allow you to repair the boot block for the hard disk.

dav10631 · 12-17-2005, 06:41 PM

erik_fl ,
great i will try that if i cant get this to work, as far as a system disk i dont have any disks that came with the software or the computer that would help me restore the computer.so my only option would be to make a bootfloppy from a friends computer.:-( i swear they say you learn from your mistakes and ived learned more about linux, and how it operates, through this mistake than i knew before i started this endevour(sp?)

Dave

Erik_FL · 12-17-2005, 07:05 PM

If you can borrow your friend's Windows XP CD, you can boot that to use the Recovery Console. You do not need a CD key or Windows activation to use the Recovery Console.

You can also install the recovery console to your hard disk (after you get your computer to boot). To install the recovery console to the hard disk, put the Windows XP setup CD in the drive. Click on "Start" and "Run". Enter a command to run the setup program as follows.

D:\i386\winnt32 /cmdcons

If your CD drive is not "D:" then substitute the correct drive letter.

After you install the recovery console, it will be added to the boot menu. If you don't want the boot menu to appear, change the boot menu timeout to 0. Then you can still press F8 to select the recovery console during boot.

heltreko · 12-18-2005, 05:24 AM

Hi again (sorry it took a while. I was tired and got to bed...)

If the windows partition is the second you could make it believe its the first with editing the windows section of lilo.conf like this

Code:

# Windows bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hda2
  label = Windows1
  boot-as=0x80

To run lilo you should type lilo or /sbin/lilo in a terminal running as root. Runing lilo reads lilo.conf and install lilo accordingly to the settings in lilo.conf.

dav10631 · 12-18-2005, 12:26 PM

thank you sooo much for your help. i figured it out about 3 am this morning

this is how i did it..

i ran this code

Code:

lilo -M /dev/hda ext -S /dev/null

this overwrote the master boot record of the harddisk (primary master) and setup my computer to start the operating system from the partition with "boot" flag.

Thank you sooo much for your help....

Dave
winnie_de_pooh@yahoo.com

heltreko · 12-18-2005, 01:46 PM

Happy to be able to help. :-)

bcmiller · 12-29-2005, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dav10631

thank you sooo much for your help. i figured it out about 3 am this morning

this is how i did it..

i ran this code

Code:

lilo -M /dev/hda ext -S /dev/null

this overwrote the master boot record of the harddisk (primary master) and setup my computer to start the operating system from the partition with "boot" flag.

Thank you sooo much for your help....

Dave
winnie_de_pooh@yahoo.com

I registered on this forum just to say THANK YOU!!!

I am fairly new to Linux and I have tried over 15 different distros. I meant to install slax to a usb drive and I accidently installed it to my hda1 where I have XP pro installed (for now hopefully)

I felt like such a heel and I didn't want to explain to my wife why I am formatting the computer yet again.

All I had to do was type that command into the terminal after I used the live cd and all is well.

I know you spent endless time figuring out this solution and I wanted to thank you for taking the time to post your solution. I found this topic on google and it saved me hours and an eventual reformat and reinstall of all of my programs.

thanks

bcmiller · 01-07-2006, 11:12 AM

kinda funny follow-up

I was ready to install Linux on a partition of my computer but I couldn't defrag my hard drive. So, last night I formatted the computer anyway. Now Im going to install Gentoo and if I get my printer and a few good games working I'm tossing my XP CD in the circular file.

I most likely will split my HD in 3 and try a few installs of linux...

In any event... this thread was a godsend last week or so

bye