I had 20GB hard disk with Windows 98 and Red Hat 6.0 (4GB) loaded on it. Later I got a new 20GB hard disk and loaded Windows 2000 on it. I had dual boot for Win-98 and Win-2000.When in Win-98, Linux was still working. Now suddenly, Linux is not working.

I temporarily connected this old hard disk to another PC having Mandrake loaded on it, but we were not able to detect the Linux partition. Is there any other way possible to access to the files loaded in Linux partition ?

My next question : Now, I have installed Win-98 on new hard disk. Can I re-load Red Hat 7.0 (or any other Linux version) in the old hard disk in the same Linux partition ? Will there be any any problem with lilo boot ? How do I go about installation ?

looks like u have over written the MBR created by linux. normally when u have two versions of windows and linux installed on a single hard-disk or hard-disk master/slave system, the boot-loader - lilo, grub or whatever, will first ask to select the OS to boot. this is due to the boot loader that resides on the first linux partition. the choice b/w two windows comes from the MBR on the active windows partition. i suppose that when u installed win 2000, the boot loader configuration was over written.

try this:

boot ur system from the linux boot diskette (boot succeeds if ur boot partition for linux has remained in tact), login as root and type this command from a terminal window.....

lilo-install /dev/hdxy

if u have used grub as the boot loader, use

grub-install /dev/hdxy

hdxy is the hard disk partition where u have installed linux. like: hda2, hdb3 etc...

If MBR was over-written, then why would Linux work for few months after I installed Win-2000 and then suddenly, now I simply cannot even get into Linux.

I had prepared bootable floppy for Linux, but it didn't work.
I had used lilo boot.

Also, now I don't remember the hard drive number hda1,hda2 ...

What can be done now ? Can I still install totally new Linux on the same Linux partition ?

Can somebody please help me on this ? I do not want to lose any data on Windows partition. How do I go about installing Linux ?

Also, now I don't remember the hard drive number hda1,hda2 ...

Open up your case.
hda - master drive on primary IDE controller
hdb - slave on primary
hdc - master on secondary
hdd - slave on secondary

The number after it is the partition number on the drive. hda1 hda2 hda3.

I temporarily connected this old hard disk to another PC having Mandrake loaded on it, but we were not able to detect the Linux partition.

You sure that you had the BIOS set to detect another drive?

Give a little more info. When you boot up what boot loader do you see? Lilo or ntloader.
Do you see the partition size and it's empty, or can't you even detect a partition? Is it free space on the drive? Does windows now take up the whole size of the drive? Does windows take up part of the drive and the rest is missing?

If you have windows installed on a partition on the drive, and if you have free space left on the drive, or if you have a Linux ext2 or ext3 formatted partition then you can install Linux to it. If the partition is large enough of course. Fdisk or cfdisk will allow you to see what partitions are on the drive and what file system they have on them. Fdisk free space to make a partition, or use an exisiting free partition to install Linux to.

You can use either Lilo or ntloader to multiple boot the machine. If you install windows after Linux it will hog everything and rewrite the MBR. You can do that, just make sure that you specify your Linux drive or partition that you want to be able to boot to at install time. If you want Lilo to boot the machine then add a line in Lilo for windows. For example

# Windows Boot Section
other = /dev/hdc2
label = WindowsXP
table = /dev/hdc

I think that I did that right.

You might also try to boot from a live CD like knoppix and see if you can sort it out.

well rchillal,

u can still got for a fresh linux installation on the existing linux partitions u made, perhaps, if u can reconnect the hard disks in primary/secondary-master/slave mode (or, if u r lucky enough, u might not have disturbed the the earlier connections!). u said that u were unable to boot from the floppy right? when u try to boot from the boot diskette, if u get an error message like "Kernel panic: no init found", i'm afraid u will have to go for an installation from scratch!

otherwise, u can try this:

boot from the installation media;
choose to manually patition;
from the existing partitions list, choose ur linux partitions, edit them and select the same mount points as u did earlier, and choose not to format (this will be default, if i can recall);

that's it! u r done

remember, as long as u don't do anything really starnge and funny., installing linux doesn't destroy data on windows partitions. altogether it will be on different partitions. one more thing, NEVER choose automatically partition while partitioning the hard disk , it will be a white wash of the entire disk!

regards,