Windows took over MBR!!

thebeast · 07-17-2004, 08:18 PM

Hey Slackers. Just installed Slack 10 and I do believe it's the best OS i've used. I had a virus in Windows previously so I decided to reinstall windows afterwards. I had a working dual-boot, until I reinstalled windows. It took over my MBR! Lilo doesn't come up, it just goes straight to windows. (My Linux partitions are still in tact however. I told windows only to install over the partition it was on before.) How can I get Lilo back? Will Slack10 install disks help any? I really need my Linux back....

ozar · 07-17-2004, 08:30 PM

Boot back into Slack with your boot floppy or slack cd then run /sbin/lilo as root and it will rewrite lilo to the mbr.

rgiggs · 07-17-2004, 08:30 PM

try using the slackware install cd, then run setup, and reinstall lilo.

Mephisto · 07-17-2004, 08:31 PM

Well you could boot off disk 2, using it as a recovery disk, mount your linux partition and rerun lilo. That should work if your lilo.conf is setup properly. There are directions on the bootup screen for disk2 for how to use your hd partition as root from the recovery disk.

Edit: Or use your boot floppy if you have one.

thebeast · 07-17-2004, 08:39 PM

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately, I don't have a boot disk. I'll try booting from cd 2.

auditek747 · 07-17-2004, 11:26 PM

If you can get Knoppix, you can always fix most anything.
It's nice to keep around.
Here's how to fix lilo with it:

http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/FaqRescue

Nichole_knc · 07-18-2004, 04:30 AM

Lesson here...

The above issue is why you always install windors first when doing a dual/multi-boot install. Yes installing/re-installing windors breaks a MBR.
A good thingy to do as part of a total system backup plan is to back up your MBR to floppy for easy recovery.

guardian653 · 07-18-2004, 05:12 AM

you could always boot of disc 1 at the boot prompt

Code:

boot:  bare.i root=/dev/hda2 noinitrd ro

(change hda2 to whatever your root is)

(sadly, lilo doesn't like my ide controller, so I have to boot this way.. or miss my 120 gb drive O_o)

thebeast · 07-18-2004, 12:21 PM

Thanks so much for the help. I'm in Slack now.

Slack rescue disk is great!