Duel boot MBR screwed
 

I have Red Hat and WinXP duel boot. I decided to reformat my Winxp partition and when i did, I lost my MBR.

I can't get my mbr back!! help!!!

I've tried a number of tools, but I dont think they'll work w/ my linux paritions.

Should I go into WinXP repair console and fixmbr and fixboot? or Fdisk/mbr?

I heard they'll mess up my linux partitions?

my linux parition isn't important to me, so should i just go with it???


more detail:
1 Fat32 (winxp)
3 NTFS (data)
and whatever linux partitions

I need help!!!!

Don't panic, this is absolutely recoverable. :D

You shouldn't need anything other than your redhat install cd #1 to fix this. We do need to know what bootloader you use (I'm guessing grub) and if it's you primary bootloader (you weren't using an xp bootmenu were you.) Basically you need to boot off rh cd#1 into rescue mode and reinstall grub. If you are able to use cd #1 to get into rescue and run:

fdisk -l

post the results. A description of all your drives and where they are attached (primary master, slave etc.) will be usefull too.

or just put in your windows disk, then fix mbr

tried the rescue mode, but couldn't find linux partitions, so i retried and skipped the search, it went to prompt, and i tried fdisk -l and it displayed 4 partitions.

....er....now what??

im lost.

all my partitions are on one 1xx GB hd

this will help
 

Hello i am also a newbie...but on my old computer, linux would not work at all because of its speed (i found my self installing linux and windows again and again and using things like fdisk is easy now)

if you have multiple partitions or even separate hard drives a windows 98 boot up disk or something to run fdisk should help

1 if you have lilo or grub (linux versions of duel boot) then use fdisk to set your active partition to what ever your linux os is on and while in lilo or grub select your windows, fat, fat32, or ntfs partition and open windows

2 if windows is not installed on your non linux partition then use fdisk to make the nonlinux partition active then install windows to it by

A) boot the windows installation directly from cd if your computer supports it (most do)
or B) using the windows 98 boot up disk to type D:\setup (where d is the drive letter
of your cd drive)

if from what I understood in your forum your linux partition didnt matter to you and you want windows back, then maybe you have doughts on wether linux is for you, Linux is the best os out there and its completely free so before converting back to windows think about this...would you rather have an os from a money hungry corporation that is just trying to make money or a os from people around the world who are trying to make the best os for the users benefit, not for them, they do this for fun and they enjoy it. stick with linux!

I hope this helps because I also am a newbie and am only 14 no lie

There weren't any linux or linux swap partitions? (type 82 and 83 iirc) Uh oh! Not good. :(

I take it you only have the one hd. Not sure but windoze may have eaten your linux. fdisk -l should have shown up your linux partitions if they still exist.

okey, i havent used linux recently and have forgot everything. i need step by step instructions what to do.

i can't get grub/lilo back.
i forgot which one im using, it had a blue screen...thats all i remember.

Sounds like grub to me. That is the default for rh. Trouble is you need to know where (what partitons) your linux was installed at. Then it's simple to reinstall grub to the mbr and everything should work just like before. Provided of course that linux didn't get wiped by xp. I know it's a pain but seeing the result of fdisk -l would really help, even if you have to write it down by hand.

this is what i get from fdisk -l
device boot start end blocks id system
/dev/hda1 * 116388 126089 84344761 69 unknown partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundry

/dev/hda2 105915 222310 93490732+ 73 unknown partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundry

/dev/hda3 1 1 0 74 unknown partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundry

/dev/hda4 1 213826 1717556736 0 empty partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundry

i dont want my linux partitions anymore, i just want my 3 ntfs partitions and an empty one to install windows back!!! help!!!!

Hmm. Something went very badly wrong. Your partition tables appear to be a mess. You've got overlapping partitions and the partition ordering is all screwed up. If there was any important data on the ntfs partitions you've got a problem. You need someone with much more experience with xp than I. If however there is nothing on your computer you want to rescue then I would suggest deleting all partitions and starting over. Better yet download the disk utils from the hd manufacturer and llf the sucker. (write zeros to drive) Whatever xp did to the drive it _really_ messed up. Thankyou Mr. Gates, may I have another.

Like I said, I don't know enough about xp to know if there is anything worth saving, but my best guess is no.

anyone w/ better ideas?

Sorry I couldn't be more help. Never seen a fdisk listing that weird. :confused:

Good luck.

Anyone who wants to jump in here won't hurt my feelings.

Short bump. ;)

TestDisk from http://www.cgsecurity.org/ works pretty good, I found my partitions, but I'm having problems accessing them... I'll write what ends up happening

okey i fixed my mbr a bit. i can use fdisk -l and see all my partitions now.


now what?????