Recently, after performing the initial update on SuSe 9.2, which had a kernel update, my multi-boot (XP Pro SP2/SuSe 9.2) was totally wiped out. Now all that I get is a black screen with a L99 error on XP and an L04 error on SuSe which are on separate drives. I know that something went wrong with LILO, and some general idea of what is required to restore the boot, but not enough to proceed.

I'm hoping that someone will take the time to give step by step instructions on this, without any unnecessary Linux jargon.

If you are sure that somthing is wrong with your "lilo"
then insert the cd with which u installed the linux distro.......boot from this cd.......
then at the prompt type "linux rescue"...........then follow the instructions there.
(probably you will only have to type "lilo" at the bash prompt to get it on work)

i hope it'll help you.

regards

I've already done that, but it didn't work.

try this

This too

if it helps you.........let others know
regards

The first link was interesting in that he found a solution by installing LILO to the MBR...this is something that I have not tried. However, let me explain my reluctance to do so at this point.

My first concern is to not to take my XP drive to a point of no return. From what I have read, the L99 error only pertains to this drive, because it is drive 0 and where the MBR is located. I think that the list of LILO errors said that this number was something about broken or invalid indexes.

L04 is the error generated by drive 1 which is the Linux install. Again, I'm not positive but I think that the error mean't that it couldn't locate the bootloader on drive 0.

In the process of trying to fix this, I used both fixboot and fixmbr on the XP drive, but this didn't work to boot either system. It seemed that both of the links that you gave, was primarily concerned about restoring just the Linux system, but to reiterate, my primary concern is to restore XP, because reinstalling Linux would be far less of a burden, with less data lost.

The second link did not indicate a clear solution, merely possibilities, many of which I have either tried or at least know of. Until I can find a solution that ensures restoration of XP, I shall try nothing.

??????.
What then was your boot-loader - XP, then using boot.ini to load Linux ???.

The "Lnn" error codes indicate to me that Lilo is in the MBR (of the first disk), and can't find the later stage files (note that I haven't used lilo in years, so big chance I'm wrong).
Maybe the Suse update did a (partial ???) update to lilo.
What happens when you try to boot XP after doing this ???.

No, I used LILO, as I have already said. However, it has never been clear to me as to where the install location of it was, because I used the default option on install, which was : "Don't touch the MBR". For this reason, I'm quite confused.
Assuming that you are right, where would this "later stage files" be located? You may also be correct about the partial update, I found an article which says to always update LILO, after a kernel update. Unfortunately, I didn't read this before. If I try to boot to XP, whether using the Linux CD, or simply by unplugging the Linux drive and booting, I only get the L99 error.

O.K., now it makes (a little) more sense.
But I can't help, as I don't know lilo - hopefully someone else can.

Re-running lilo from the install disk, and fixmbr from the XP resource centre should both have re-written the MBR loader code (on the BIOS primary boot disk).
Why it didn't is the issue I'd be persuring - bit hard to do from the other side of the 'net I'm afraid.

O.K., now it makes (a little) more sense.
But I can't help, as I don't know lilo - hopefully someone else can.

Re-running lilo from the install disk, and fixmbr from the XP resource centre should both have re-written the MBR loader code (on the BIOS primary boot disk).
Why it isn't is the issue I'd be persuing - bit hard to do from the other side of the 'net I'm afraid.

Is it possible ???
I mean to boot from XP boot - loader using boot.ini to load linux
If yes, then what would be the entries in boot.ini ???

seeker1 would you please tell me that how many drives you have for windows, and
on which drive your windows operating system files are....

regards

u can use "loadlin" to load linux from ur winXP bootloader

Doesn't need loadlin.
Simply a matter of copying the boot sector record to the XP system partition.
A *very* poor option compared to the linuxloaders.

plz be a little descriptive about copying the boot sector record ......i mean from where should i copy, what should be copied etc. etc..

regards