Upon trying to load windows (via lilo) my window partition refuses to load.

When i boot up with lilo i've customized it to give me the 3 options i want, Slackware, Slackware.old (my last working kernel compilation) and windows.

Not an hour ago i was playing warcraft 3 on windows over my lan, and during the middle of the game my computer shut itself off and rebooted, now it refuses to load when i select windows, it gives me custom ascii lettering, something that is close, but not exact, in the resemblence between "K" and a smiley face, very frustrating.

so I got on slackware and took a poke at lilo (in the console "lilo") and it said that the first sector of /dev/hda1 (thats my windows disk) is not a valid boot signature.

So now i humbly request help, I think what i need is a virus scanner i can run on linux that will scan windows partition for viruses, and also a type of scandisk. If neither ive still got my winXP boot cd maybe that will work

well, it is obvios, that you have problem with your windows OS (at least with its bootsector) and not with linux or bootloader

you will need winXP boot CD to fix this

boot winXP boot CD, choose "R" as Repair option, then choose target (probably you will choose option 1 for C:\WINDOWS), then you have to enter Administrator's password and admin console will appear. Type "fixboot c:" and your bootsector will be repaired/replaced

do not use "fixmbr", it would replace lilo

maybe there will be bigger damage on your windows... then try system repair from boot CD (F2 during loading from CD) or at least "chkdsk /F c:" to check your partition

HTH

if it is just scribbled text and not a lilo prompt like you had, you MIGHT have a currupted MBR section. Protect the MBR some bugs may affect it..

see if you can protect the bios and MBR.
(first line of defence)
-----------------

It is ok to completely write over the lilo to fix the XP boot code in the MBR, SO LONG AS YOU have a good working slackware 10.1 bootable cd, disk 1. !!

After you fix the XP partition using the XP-install cd command prompt and, are able to boot into windows, run disk scanning software to fix potential errors. do what you must to make sure XP is happy again. clear cash/ Defragment .... yada yada yoda.

Reboot and pop in the slack10.1 disk1 and type in the command for no Initrid listed on first boot screen.
run through the liloconfig script [ or use "pkgtool" rerun install config script for lilo].
use default "auto liloinstall", then type lilo to show boot selections available. Then edit /etc/lilo.config.