How do I restore the old boot sector in the installed system with "lilo -u /dev/hdb"?

This is what has happened so far....

1) Install SuSE 7.3 using entire 40 Gig Hard Drive
-I get a message at the end of the install stating... "The lilo boot sector has been written to disk. Restore the old boot sector in the installed system with "lilo -u /dev/hdb" and then I have an "ok" button to click.

The install finishes and it says the install was successful and to remove media prior to reboot. I do this.

2)The computer reboots. Then this is the message I get...

"Invalid system disk. Replace the disk, and then press any key."

-At this point, there is no media in the drive bays, nothing but the hard drive with Linux installed on it.

3)I think I might can use the CD-ROM as a boot disk to get into a GUI and figure something out.... since I am a Windows user, I know nothing about the Linux command line. I am successful in getting the a few options on the screen... one of them being -Rescue System- or something like that. The problem is, I don't know what to do when it gives me the command line. Can I "restore the old boot sector" from this command line?


I am really stuck. How do I get my computer to boot into Linux?

All replys welcome.

Do you have a windows 98 or windows me boot disk?
If not find one and boot into dos. Then type when you get this

A:\

fdisk/mbr

it will restore you boot sector and you will enter into windows




AcidRain

Hi, I am kind of confused. I am not wanting Windows on the computer, just SuSE Linux 7.3 .... So I am not sure how booting into Windows is going to help me boot into Linux.

Do you have a linux boot disk?

Yeah, I have the SuSE Boot Disk ( I also have my computer where it can boot from the CD-ROM), I can use either the floppy boot disk or CD-ROM #1 of the SuSE Distro.

the problem is because you do not set a primary partion. Listen try this. Use a dos bootdisk. Boot to dos..type "fdisk"
enter fdisk and go to the place that say "make partion activate "and activate the first one. You want just linux on you pc. So you do not matter if you format your disk and put again SUSE.are u? So boot with linux cd delete the linux istallation partion. reboot. enter in the floppy a windows 98 boot disk.type

A:\fdisk

"make activate the partiotion"

reboot

enter linux suse cd

install it

OK, Thanks, I will do as you suggest.... it may take me a few min. ( I am typing on my laptop and installing SuSE on my desktop). If I come across a problem I will let you know.

Thanks again,

I will try it now and will keep you posted.

Joe

Ok. I hope what i said help u. I will be clad if i can help u solve your problem.

Things are looking good so far. Just as you said. I used fdisk and made the non-dos partiton the active one and rebooted. Now I am reinstalling Linux. I will let you know how it goes.

Use LILO as bootloader

I am at 60% on the install. LILO seems to be the default boot loader when I try and install.

When it tries to install the boot loader, I get the same message... "The lilo boot sector has been written to disk. Restore the old boot sector in the installed system with "lilo -u /dev/hdb" and then I have an "ok" button to click. Is this ok? I really don't have a choice but to click ok. I will see what happens, after all, I did change the active partition like you said... let me try it.

when I clicked OK, the screen went black with the "x" (for the mouse) on the screen, and it locked up and is not responding. Any ideas?

It boots? Or you have the same problem?

When I rebooted, I removed the Linux install CD, and instead of getting the "Invalid system disk. Replace the disk, and then press any key." message, it said....

"Missing operating system"