fdisk from Win98 disk for XP?

r_jensen11 · 04-05-2004, 10:25 PM

Anyone know if this will work? I really hope so, because I'm in some trouble here.

hda1 is some dell utility partition, hda2 is windows XP's C partition

When I have lilo try to boot hda2, all it says is:

booting *label*

*label*

so I need to "fix" hda's MBR so that it can boot XP. Will it work if I use win98's disk to type in fdisk /mbr so that it will boot into XP?

*edit*

the dell utility partition is a 50MB partition that's hidden FAT32

r_jensen11 · 04-05-2004, 10:32 PM

Here's what fdisk says for hda:

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 7 56196 16 Hidden FAT16
/dev/hda2 * 8 1919 15358140 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3 1920 9729 62733825 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 1920 4667 22073278+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda6 4668 7107 19599268+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda7 7108 8523 11373988+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda8 8524 9729 9687163+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

So I guess the dell utility partition is fat16, not fat32....

Pcghost · 04-05-2004, 11:50 PM

I think XP has a similar utility on it's install disk, under repair. You will have to reinstall lilo after it repairs the ntloader, but that shouldn't be to tough.

The way I understand it at Lilo the system either:

A. Loads the Linux kernel selected or
B. Hands off boot responsibility to ntloader.

r_jensen11 · 04-06-2004, 09:19 AM

Thanks, I'll have to find that disk soon. I just don't get it. When one thing gets fixed, another thing goes wrong. When I first installed Slack on my 1.7ghz machine, it could have LILO boot into Windows, but it only saw my 40gb hard drive that Linux was on was only 4 GB. Now it sees the 40 GB, but I can't boot into Windows.... If I can't find that XP disk, I guess I'll have to use another Windows computer to make the boot disks for the broken machine.

I just don't get what's wrong with my setup

my boot section for lilo is:

other = /dev/hda2
label = WindowsXP
table = /dev/hda

Do I have to remove the bootable flag for hda2?

Pcghost · 04-06-2004, 11:35 AM

Not sure about lilo in this case as I use the Grub boot loader. Here is my grub.conf for my system. Maybe it can shed some light on the setup.

default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora Core (2.4.22-1.2115.nptl)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb
initrd /initrd-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl.img
title Windows 2000 Pro
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
title Red Hat Linux 9 (2.4.20-24.9-XN patched)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-24.9-XN ro root=/dev/hdc1

J.W. · 04-06-2004, 12:16 PM

r_jensen - can you post your entire lilo.conf file? I don't think the problem is with your MBR or anything else, but rather that you've just labelled something incorrectly in lilo. I mean, the issue is simply that your PC can boot into Linux, but if you try to boot into Windows you get an error, correct? -- J.W.

r_jensen11 · 04-06-2004, 07:51 PM

Code:

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hde
#compact        # faster, but won't work on all systems.
prompt
timeout = 100
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga = 790
# Normal VGA console
 vga = normal
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769
# ramdisk = 0     # paranoia setting
# End LILO global section
# DOS bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.5
  root = /dev/hde3
  label = Linux-2.6.5
  read-only # Non-UMSDOS filesystems should be mounted read-only for checking
# DOS bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/hda2
  label = dos
  table = /dev/hda
#image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.22
#  root = /dev/hde3
#  label = Linux-2.4.22
#  read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

And JW, I don't get any errors, that's the thing, it just hangs....

One odd thing is, though, that when I changed it from /dev/hda2 to /dev/hda1, /dev/hda1 showed up in cfdisk, whereas it was hidden before. I'm all confused about this.... If I have to, I'll ask my dad to put in the administrator's password (why does XP have to have that for install?) so that I can run fdisk /mbr, and then just either switch which mbr the computer searches for via bios (hda vs hde). This is all LILO's "smart" mode's fault, where it automates everything if you hit enter one too many times because the system's lagging and you don't know if you hit enter or not!

r_jensen11 · 04-06-2004, 08:27 PM

It boots up into XP now!!!

I guess everything's solved for the moment, now. Although I don't have it set up how I'd like it to be (windows's bootloader on hda's MBR and LILO on hde's MBR), both operating systems work!

I don't know what did it, but I'm taking a guess. I was really worried last night when I went to bed (feared facing family wrath), and that's when I remembered that I flagged /dev/hde3 as bootable. It might be because I had /dev/hda2 and /dev/hde3 flagged as bootable, and I only flagged /dev/hde3 bootable somewhere between my first Slack install and my second on this comuter (cfdisk complained about how there weren't any bootable partitions on the drive). SO I unflagged /dev/hde3 as bootable, and now it boots into XP or Linux, and XP runs how it used to. Thanks for the suggestions.