hi,

i just built a new computer and took out one of my two hard drives for the newly built pc. this hard drive (40G) contains the master boot record and has windows xp installed. i did a reinstallation of windows xp to make it fit into its new housing. but during this process, i forgot to back up the MBR on it.

now i couldn't boot into mandrake 10 which still resides on the other disk (10G) in my old pc. i tried to use mandrake setup cd for rescue, but it says 'can't find boot partition'.

would anyone tell me how to revive the mandrake disk?


btw, did mandrake change its name to 'Mandriva'?

i'm not quite sure, but if you install windows after you install linux,
windows will overwrite your linux-bootmanager, who lets you choose which system to boot
the windows bootmanager has no such options and always boots windows.
Thats why you can't install windows second
So you probably have to reinstall linux or reinstall the bootmanager
hope this was the problem
vave

Boot from your mandrake install disk, whaen given the option... press F1. That'll bring you to a cli. I think the command you want is rescue. That'll re-install lilo.

hi, all

i've reinstalled Mandrake 10.0 onto my old computer and it runs fine.

today i moved the hard disk into my new computer as 2nd hard disk (1st HD running windows XP) and try to load mandrake using a bootable disk. but i couldn't do it. instead it prompts reinstall or upgrade Mandrake, i chose upgrade option and load the installation CD, but it says there's a boot sector error and gives up.

if i just install 2nd harddisk alone in the new computer, it runs fine.

what should i do to run mandrake together with windows xp?

When the Mandriva screen appears I press F1 and type "rescue" but the program can't find my USB keyboard & mouse on any USB ports I plug them in, so I can't press the "reinstall linux bootloader".

I was thinking of doing the install process again and choosing "update Mandriva" or something like that.

What can I do so as to not lose anything from /home directory?

First you will need a usable keyboard.

I've kinda lost track of your hd/box situation but I think you had 1 hd with win,probably installed first,and mandrake on the 2nd hd in the old box.

If this is correct when you took your hdb out and put it in another box Mandriva(it changed names with 10.2 I think) would'nt boot because there was no MBR written to this hd.

Did you dual boot your old setup?If so did you use lilo or grub?
All you have to do is install grub from a floppy or live cd and it will boot just fine.

I went through this same thing not long ago so I will try to help.

Oops I just noticed there were 2 people asking ? in one thread.Sorry.Now I'm confused.