After a lot of tryings and secession of errors with lilo..now my pc is booting linux well, but cannot boot xp:
-1 hd - 4 partitions-
1-d: ntfs my windows xp that i want to boot (i think i have to change to c:, but how where)
2-c: fat 32 (installations files of mandrake 10.0) i started a new installation of xp here, (thinking in fix the mbr & swith partitons letters from it) but couldn't finish
3-#: mandrake
4-#: swap
i can't boot Xp, and want to access it a few time yet, and when try to boot by xp installation disk to fixmbr in the repair console then it breaks down lilo.
need help! Please

Go here and read this thread , you'll understand whats going on.


http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...t&pagenumber=1

What error do you get when you cannot boot xp?

-berkay-

when I chose windows in lilo boot menu, the screen turned black and a cursor just keeps blinking..
i think i have to change to the right installation of xp to boot, but how...? since my boot loader is lilo..(maybe in xp repair console?)
when a did a dos boot by diskette and typed: fdisk /mbr it danificate both boots..and i fix it rescuing linux from installation..
and how i can create linux and dos boot diskettes..
thanks..

ps: the other same error thread didn't help..but thanks.

could you please post you "lilo.conf" file

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
default="linux"
keytable=/boot/br-abnt2.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux"
root=/dev/hda3
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5 splash=silent"
vga=788
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux-nonfb"
root=/dev/hda3
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount splash=silent acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk
label="263-7"
root=/dev/hda3
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5 splash=silent"
read-only
other=/dev/hda2
label="windows"
table=/dev/hda
other=/dev/hda2
label="windows2"
table=/dev/hda
other=/dev/fd0
label="floppy"
unsafe
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk
label="old_linux-nonfb"
root=/dev/hda3
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img
append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="failsafe"
root=/dev/hda3
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="failsafe splash=silent acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5 devfs=nomount"
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label="old_windows"
table=/dev/hda

but i think i have to change the xp installation in windows ambient, because the problem started after i made a kind of modification in boot.ini apoint to the right installation...
i ussually formmated and install windows and programs for friends and have to change boot.ini to delete those installation of their hd's..
but now i have rewritted mbr in xp rpair console. what should i do?

I had the same problem.
Changing the hardrive access method to LBA in my bios solved the problem.

I hope this helps.

i really don't know how, but changing it in bios setup solved the principal problem...
in fact there are a lot of things to do, like video, and i can't run any applications says "out of memory"
but i can boot my xp now, and that's what i wanted, because there are a lot of things i have to do before deleting it forever...
thanks all of you for the help!

well first whats wrong with your video? you mean graphics card? are you missing drivers? what card are you running? what is your problem? with the memory though sorry I'm currently unable to help in that area, but I'll try, How much memory do you have on your computer? How big is your swap drive?

with linux is everything ok...
the problems are in Xp, so i don't care anymore..because i plan to format windows partiton after back up my data correctly!!
by the way, whats the right size for the swap? i have 512 ram, how can i calculate?! I have 4gB and guessing is so much..

a good rule of thumb is usually double your ram. I have 512 also and created my swap with 1024 It all depends on what you want to do!