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Old 05-15-2006, 03:03 PM   #1
ILoveTux
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Registered: Feb 2006
Posts: 3

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Question Disk Geometry changed by GRUB causes XP boot failure


Hi All,
A Bug in Fedora Core GRUB intall causes the disk geometry to be modified from LBA to CHS Format.The partition table now has both CHS & LBA value.Linux ignores CHS values but Windows messes up failing to boot.
I'm experiencing the same trouble,due to which i'm not being able to boot windows,however linux can still boot.
original disk geometry had 255 number of heads initially and was changed to 16 after the partition was corrupted by Fedora
None of the solutions suggested to the problem:
Setting BIOS setting from auto to LBA or
Code:
 $ sfdisk -d /dev/hda | sfdisk --no-reread -H255 /dev/hda
is working in my case.
So, the only option remaining to me is to clear the MBR & partition table & rebuilt them again.
i plan to clear MBR using:
Code:
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=zero.img bs=512 count=1
$ dd if=zero.img of=/dev/hda
& rebuilt the partition table & MBR
Can i do this i rebuilt & restore original partition table without loosing valuable data & how?How to make a backup of partition table & MBR so that i can restore them if above process fails?
Thanks in Advance
 
Old 05-15-2006, 10:31 PM   #2
ILoveTux
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Registered: Feb 2006
Posts: 3

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The data on my disk is very critical,so i don't want to make any irreversible change.
 
Old 05-16-2006, 07:07 AM   #3
jolphil
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Registered: May 2002
Location: central florida
Distribution: Linux Mint, ,Mageia,Ubuntu
Posts: 453

Rep: Reputation: 33
I am not an expert so take my suggestions with a grain of salt..
I would first suggest that you get your Linux distro to boot off a floppy or other device B4 making any changes..Edit you may have to reset your bios to boot off a floppy or other device "first boot device"..

Then you can use your windows XP install cdrom to fix the MBR..That will overwrite grub on the mbr..Do a google and learn how to
enter Windows the repair mode ..
That way you will be able to get into each distro..
Anyone else,feel free to jump in here to offer better advice..
goodluck,
jolphil

Last edited by jolphil; 05-16-2006 at 07:10 AM.
 
Old 05-16-2006, 08:19 AM   #4
wraithe
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Registered: Feb 2006
Location: Australia
Distribution: Linux... :-)
Posts: 241
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the only thing i can suggest is mount the ntfs and recover what you can...
if you can burn to cd then thats an advantage...
one other thing is i have changed bios settings without effecting the boot of linux but i'm not suggesting you do that first...get a backup of your work first then you may only have to re-install windows...
good luck...

Last edited by wraithe; 05-16-2006 at 08:21 AM.
 
  


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