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Old 03-15-2004, 10:15 AM   #1
Unforgiver
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Registered: Mar 2004
Posts: 4

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"Error loading operating system" upon first reboot after install


I'm hoping I can get some help here, as I have no idea what to do at this point.

I'm extremely new to Linux, but have been interested in it for quite a while now. I decided to install it on one of my machines to play around with it last night. So I run the install disc's and everything seems to be going ok. It picks up the onboard SCSI controller and the hdd thats on there, sees my vid card and installs the right drivers, and generally appears to be working rather good. Everything finishes and it reboots, but I'm quickly greeted my a "error loading operating system" message when it tries to load. I tried to reinstall and rescue, but to no avail.

Specs on the system in case it helps:

Asus CUV4X-DLS
Dual PIII 1 gig
1 gig sdram
ATI all-in-wonder 9000
Phillips acoustic edge
Seagate 10K rpm 18gig SCSI, using onboard SCSI controller
Western Digital 120gig 8mb cache

I have some pinnacle DV hardware in there that I'm not too sure will work since I cant find any info on Linux & DV.

Regardless I'm at a loss.....

Any ideas?

 
Old 03-15-2004, 10:27 AM   #2
jpbarto
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Registered: Mar 2003
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Distribution: Gentoo / NetBSD
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sounds like the installer may have failed to properly install Lilo or Grub. One trick with Lilo, I used to use Slackware alot and I always had to install Lilo to the MBR (which it listed as dangerous) in order for the system to boot. So if you remember the installer asking you what boot loader to use and where to install it you could try installing it to the MBR.
 
Old 03-15-2004, 10:37 AM   #3
Unforgiver
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Registered: Mar 2004
Posts: 4

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I'll play around with it some more when I get home. I might just toss a spare 40gig Maxtor I have laying around in there. I wanted to put XP pro on it anyhow since I really like the support it has for DV hardware, but I'd also like to play around with Redhat since it looks pretty cool.

Ill check the bootloader when I get out of work.
 
Old 10-16-2011, 03:30 PM   #4
mrpj2u
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Registered: Sep 2011
Posts: 2

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Smile Solution to "error loading operating system"

Hi

This rumour that it is a BIOS or HDD issue is not true
What is true is that it is a issue of HDD geometry

The issue is what is written to the HDD not BIOS

This is proven by the fact that I got 6 new HDD's Same make model and batch. I created the fault on one drive. I then installed XP onto a second and third HDD both of which worked absolutely perfect.

I then cloned the DUD install onto the working HDD guess what the error was reproduced proving that the issue is actually what is written to the HDD.

To prove that it is NOT a HDD fault and is only what is written to the HDD I cloned the 3rd HDD that was working perfectly back to 1st & 2nd HDD

All three drives then booted and worked perfectly

This establishes the "error loading operating system" is a function only of what is written to the HDD, it is not a HDD or BIOS issue at all.

Anything said to the contrary is a myth or just misinformation by the uninformed or uneducated or random luck.

As to what is written to the drive and what to change in general the following has been proven on the drive that was produced with the error

1 The partitions were all accessible no error
2 The files were all accessible no errors
3 FixBoot & FixMbr just does not fix the problem
4 BootCfg /Rebuild just does not fix the problem
5 SystemRoot c:\windows did not fix this problem

Now in summary
We do know its NOT a BIOS or HDD fault
We do know its a software problem written to HDD
We do know that it can be fixed by overwriting
We know FDISK on XPBOOT from BootDisk.com does not work its Win98 & makes it worse (wrong version)

What I can tell you is cloning the drive with O&O Disk Image repairs the problem on the target HDD if you say yes to the question "the original appears bootable do you want the target to be bootable Yes / No"

What I can ALSO tell you is cloning the drive with Active@Disk repairs the problem on the target HDD if you say yes to the question "the original appears bootable do you want the target to be bootable Yes / No"

What I don't have yet is quick fix that works, I will test any serious suggestions for solution, to date not one of the after market drive repair programs I have tested has proven successful, however manually copying the MBR Partition Table, Boot Sector and Bootstrap Loader from one of the working drives in the test batch does solve the issue.
However working with a hex editor on the drive is not for the faint hearted or newbies
so i am still looking for a software solution for a quick fix, any suggestions.
TestDisk, DiskPart PTDD SpinRite HDDRegenerator along with many others have been tried & they all fail to resolve this issue though they all work very well on other drive issues.

Kind Regards
Mrpj2u
 
Old 01-03-2012, 03:42 AM   #5
kimurayuki
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jan 2012
Posts: 6

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Unforgiver View Post
I'll play around with it some more when I get home. I might just toss a spare 40gig Maxtor I have laying around in there. I wanted to put XP pro on it anyhow since I really like the support it has for DV hardware, but I'd also like to play around with Redhat since it looks pretty cool.

Ill check the bootloader when I get out of work.

Hi folks, i encounter the same problem too. Were you able to fix the problem? Need some advice, thanks in advance
 
  


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