Here is what I have:
WinXp on hda (NTFS)
data on hdb (NTFS)
Mandrake 9.1 on hdc (that worked at one time)
I recently had to "fixmbr" so that I could get windows to boot (and it does), but now I'm trying to reinstall lilo so that I get Linux to boot as well. I am booting to the Mandrake 9.1 CD 1 and going into rescue mode, which gives me the option to "Rewrite Bootloader". This finds the linux install and recognizes the windows install, but at the very end it says "FATAL: Kernel doesn't support initial RAM disks". I tried booting to the Mandrake CD and choosing "Upgrade Installation" in hopes that it will rewrite it but after going through the ten minute "Upgrade Install" it doesn't work either. Is there another option, short of reinstalling Mandrake completely? Would that even work? Any suggestions?

By the way I am a newb and this is my first post here.
Thanks!

Hi Techstar25

Did you make a boot disk at the end of the Mandrake install? If so youd be able to get to a Console to run /sbin/lilo to re-install LILO

The worst case scenario would be just to re-install Mandrake - this would almost certainly sort out any problems.

However - I wouldnt use NTFS for your Shared Data partition.

Although Mandrake could probably read NTFS it won't be able to write to it properly - the solution is simply to use FAT32 for your Shared Data partition - both Linux and Windows can Read/Write to and from it.

Another thing - you say youve got WinXP on /dev/hda - data on /dev/hdb - Mandrake on /dev/hdc - are you using 3 hard drives?

Thanks for the reply.
I don't have a boot floppy. I thought I'd be able to boot to the CD and that would be the same.

I just converted my data drive (drive 2) to Fat32 with Partitionmagic, and everything seems fine. Windows is reading the drive with no problems.

Yes, I am using three different hard drives.

If reinstalling would work, I think I'll just do that. It's no problem. It just takes a while, that's all. I was hoping there was a quick and dirty solution.

You can use rawrite in Windows that is found on the Mandrake CD. Then find the image on the CD and make a LINUX boot disk. Then you don't have to re-install LINUX all over again even though it takes half the time to install Windows XP. Don't forget to make a boot disk for Windows XP.

I reinstalled and LILO works, but now when it boots it says:

Booting Mandrake
Running DevFS - OK
Unmounting initrd: - OK
Configuring Kernel Parameters - OK
<blinking cursor>

... and that's it. It freezes. I left it for ten minutes. This is odd because it booted just fine before I had the MBR problem. It really should work. That's the frustrating part of it. Can anyone think of anything I can try?

By the way it does the same thing whether I choose to boot "linux", "linux-nonfb", or "failsafe".