I had both Linux and Win XP installed on my system but since my windows crashed I had to install it again. Now I am unable to see the boot loader itself. Win XP boots automatically without giving any option. What do I do now.

Please help me. I am a newbie as far as Linux is concerned. Is there any way I can avoid this problem in future if I have to install windows again.

Please help me I have a lot of data on my Linux so I can't even format it.

You need to reinstall your boot-loader. How you do this depends on which distribution of Linux you have. Most include a rescue disk that you can use, as part of the install disks.

If you don't have one, then don't worry because you can download a rescue distro quite easily and burn it to CD or save it to floppy. Try www.distrowatch.com

You need to boot onto the rescue disk, mount the root filesystem of your Linux install, e.g. to /mnt/ and then chroot to it: From here, you can remount your other filesystems, like /boot, and then reinstall your bootloader. See the manpages for grub and lilo for instructions.

Windows always overwrites the MBR with its own bootloader. M$ doesn't like to encourage people to have multipel OSes, I guess.

If you have a bootable Linux cd, fire it up and re-install your linux bootloader from there.

If not, get one - DamnSmallLinux is only 50mb. . .

Another recommendation is the GAG Bootloader. It is a small ISO image (3.xMB i think?) and you create a bootable CD with it and that's how you install the bootloader. This enables the GAG bootloader to be installed to boot ANY OS. It is VERY VERY easy to set up, and it includes icons to go along with the names to identify what OSes you are running(Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, HURD, etc..) I recommend it to anyone. It's a great replacement boot loader,and it's also great for emergency purposes such as this.

hey arup255
what linux distro do you use
and then someone can walk you through the process
When you ask Qs like this just a little more info is needed so someone can give you the right advice
info like : distro, HDD size, Processor etc

live long and prosper
floppy

Hey floppywhopper,

I use RedHat Linux 8.0 along with WinXP. Win XP is installed on the primary HDD (160 GB) while Linux on the secondary HDD (40 GB). I have P4 1.7 Ghz and 256 MB RAM. nfortunately my Floppy Drive died a few years back. Pl Help I cant boot into Linux (no Loader)

The Red Hat 8 install CDs probably have a rescue mode that you can boot into.

If not, even without a floppy disk, you could use still a CD-ROM and burner to make a rescue disk to boot from. You may have to modify your BIOS to boot from CD before booting from the hard disk, though. And some very old BIOSes won't boot from CDs at all.

Another option is to download LOADLIN.EXE (it's on the install disks as well I think), then restart Windows in DOS mode (hold down F8 after the memory test for a menu). http://freebooks.by.ru/view/RedHatLi...d/rhl6u026.htm You will still need your vmlinuz file for RedHat 8.0 though; you should be able to find one on the install disks or you can probably get one from the web. You'll also need to know which partition is your root, or you could use trial and error.

Having booted your Linux system you can easily reinstall your bootloader; I think Red Hat uses lilo so you just need

hi
if u have linux startup disk or linux cd
u can boot it from it
then go to the linux single mode
then u will get sh shell
where go to cd /etc
and then give command lilo -v
after that it should work
if linux single not work then go to linux rescue
it will work only from cd
while u will goto linux resuce mode u will asked 2-3 option
in 1option select contiune.
give chroot /mnt/sysimage command at end
then cd /etc
and do lilo -v
and restart the system it should work
because i had the same problem what happen if linux alreday installed and if u install windows
it will overwriet the bootloader that is why u r facing the problem
try with this option it should work

if work give me reply
bye
cheers

Futhermore,

Boot using the 1st install CD and select rescue mode.

Since grub is the default bootloader for RH then instead of lilo
after you chroot run

grub-install

I do not know of anyway to prevent windows from overwriting the bootloader with a reinstall. But, it isn't difficult to repair once you know how.