UH OH !!! Windows XP Gone?

OSI-laya · 06-05-2003, 09:22 PM

I've just installed Slackware 9 and everything went smoothly without a hitch...that is..Until LILO started up and there was no option to boot into Windows. What can I do, please help.

During setup I opted to install LILO on the MBR because thats what i've been doing with other distros and it always seemed to work fine. This time though I'm worried, all my stuff is on Windows and I can't even get to it...YELP!

Anyone out there who can help me please do...

Regards - OSI-laya

Astro · 06-05-2003, 09:29 PM

Well you can always use a windows boot disk to get to an a prompt and do a fdisk /mbr that will clear the MBR and you should be able to boot to windows providing it is of course, still there! After that you could boot to the slack CD and mount your drive with linux and run liloconfig and set it up again and see if that works.

OSI-laya · 06-05-2003, 09:38 PM

WHAT DO YOU MEAN !! if its "still there"..... please don't scare me like that.

thanks for the help though.

Just wondering.. instead of formatting the MBR can i just run libconfig again using the bootdisk and reconfigure it or should i format the MBR first?

Tinkster · 06-05-2003, 09:38 PM

/me spells out in large friendly letters:"Don't panic!" :)

Firstly, losing eXPeriment would be a good thing!
;)

Secondly: when in slack, check your
partitiontable

Code:

su -
fdisk -l /dev/hda               #assuming your HDD is the first IDE device in the system

If you can spot you XP, go and manually
edit your /etc/lilo.conf
Just add an entry like

Code:

other=/dev/hda1               #put the actual partition number here
                   label=BAH

Save it, run lilo.

If Lilo doesn't complain, you should
be able to run eXPeriment after reboot
from your Lilo-Menu by selecting BAH

Cheers,
Tink

OSI-laya · 06-05-2003, 09:45 PM

Thanks Tinkster !!!

Where should I add the entry you suggested? Is down at the end ok??

Tinkster · 06-05-2003, 09:53 PM

Yep, winDOHs at the end, where it belongs :*}

Not that it makes a difference ;)

Cheers,
Tink

fancypiper · 06-05-2003, 10:30 PM

Windows XP Recovery Console