Okay, I'm in a unique situation: I've got a really plain vanilla generic pc I built myself that I've been using two hard disks in, one with windows xp & its programs and one to store all sorts of media files.

Well, I had an extra hard disk laying around, and I figured I could plug it in in place of my media disk and install a linux distro to play around with (I know approximately nothing.) I figured I could just yank it and plug the media disk back in when I didn't feel like playing with linux, right?

Not so much now. I installed Mandrake 10 official on the extra hd with lilo set up automatically by the installer to dual-boot, and now when I yank the linux disk and put the media disk back in and try to boot, I get through the BIOS memory checks and whatnot and then nothing but a black screen with (oddly enough) a lot of 9s. wtf?

I don't have enough plugs in my cheap power supply to use all three hard disks at once, and now I can't run Windows unless the Linux disk is plugged in (which means no media disk for me!) I have no idea why... Windows can't even see the Linux disk.

Anybody know what the hell I've done to my poor unsuspecting PC?

Yes. When you installed the Mandrake bootloader, it installed LiLO in two stages: one is on the MBR (Master Boot Record) of the first hard drive, and then there is a configuration file on the Mandrake partition which tells LiLO what the menu should look like and where the boot files for the entries in the menu are (it's called /etc/lilo.conf).

If the Mandrake drive is not on the system, LiLO can't find this configuration file, and therefore cannot boot anything.

You have several options:

1) Restore the Windows bootloader (which will make you unable to boot Linux), and then transfer the Linux boot sector to the Windows bootloader menu so that you can boot Linux from the Windows bootloader menu: Instructions here and here;

2) Use a third party Windows bootloader to manage both systems; some examples are Boot Magic (commercial; comes with Partition Magic), System Commander (commercial) or some free boot managers are listed here and here;

3) Transfer/install LiLO to a floppy; in my experience this means you will always have to boot with this floppy in the drive. Alternatively, despite the fact that the kernel is likely too big to fit on a floppy, thus a normal boot disk cannot be made, there are workarounds for this problem: instructions for both these procedures (as well as how to make a bootable CD) can be found on the Mandrake 9.2 Errata page;

4. Install GRUB to a floppy and use that to boot both OSes; instructions in the Grub manual;

5. Use LOADLin to boot both OSes; instructions here.

Hope one of these solutions works for you.

Thank you so much for such a well thought-out answer!

I'll have a go at it in the morning

So, um... anybody know how to restore the windows bootloader?

I booted up from my XP installer disc, went into the Recovery Console, did a

fixboot c:

and a

bootcfg /rebuild

and still the exact same thing... this is no good

At this point I'm planning to just get XP back where it should be, then disconnect its drive altogether while I reinstall Mandrake, and then just choose which one I want to boot from my BIOS boot menu. But first I have to get XP working on its own.

Ayayaye.

The command in the Recovery Console is FIXMBR (at least it is if it's the same as Win2k).

You can also boot from the first Mandrake disk, type "rescue" instead of hitting enter at the first screen, and choose the "Restore Windows Bootloader" option from the menu.

Hope this helps.

I actually tried fixmbr and fixboot, but only fixboot appeared to do anything.

I'm excited about this Mandrake restore windows bootloader gadget... I hope it works.

Thanks for the help again, mate

It looks like the reason fixmbr didn't work may be because you didn't put a device name after it:

See Microsoft Windows XP - Fixmbr on the Microsoft site.

BTW its possible to purchase a Y adapter for adding additional plugs.