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Old 07-08-2004, 12:02 AM   #1
renalmirol
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Installed Red Hat 9 but Lost Win XP


I installed RedHat 9 on a secondary hard drive, but now I've lost Win XP because it bypasses Boot Magic and immediately boots Linux. The Linux install didn't accept its prepared partition (Partition Magic 8.0) so I selected "delete Linux partitions" and then repartitioned during same install process.

How do I get Linux to boot after Boot Magic or on the DOS list of OSs? I was able to do this with Win XP and Server 2003. The answer most likely has something to do with GRUB, but exactly how?

Is it possible to have the option to boot Win XP from a primary HD and Win 2003 Server, Red Hat 9, and Solaris 9 from a secondary HD?

Thanks,
Ren
 
Old 07-08-2004, 04:19 AM   #2
motub
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1) Boot from the Boot Magic Rescue diskettes (you did make them, didn't you?) and re-enable Boot Magic, then add RH to your list of bootable OSes;

2) Boot to Linux, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and adjust the timeout (so that the menu displays, if that is not happening) so that you can choose Windows from the GRUB menu, and/or add Windows to the GRUB menu if it does not exist so that you can use GRUB to boot Windows, instead of Boot Magic;

3) Boot from the XP CD, choose the Rescue Option, log in as Administrator, type /FIXMBR at the prompt to restore the Windows boot loader, boot into Windows, re-enable Boot Magic, and add RH to your list of bootable OSes.

Answer to question #2: I don't see why not; I'm not familiar with Solaris, per se, but the Massive Multiboot in my sig was controlled by Boot Magic, and there's no reason why it shouldn't work with Solaris included as well.

Hope this helps.

Last edited by motub; 07-08-2004 at 04:22 AM.
 
Old 07-08-2004, 08:53 AM   #3
renalmirol
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Thanks Holly!

Thanks Holly! I did make a Rescue disk and I'll try your suggestions.

~Ren
 
Old 07-08-2004, 12:42 PM   #4
renalmirol
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Help!

Method 1 runs DR-DOS and then PQ Boot 8.0. However, after I select to boot from the BOOTMAGIC partition and remove the floppy, it shows “Invalid system disk. Replace the disk, and then press any key”. After I hit spacebar, I get the same message and then finally “DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER”. Reinserting the BM Rescue floppy results in the same process. The worse news is that it’s no longer able to boot to Linux.

I tried booting from the XP CD, but I keep getting the same error messages as above. Any other suggestions?

Last edited by renalmirol; 07-08-2004 at 12:46 PM.
 
Old 07-08-2004, 05:19 PM   #5
motub
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IIrc, there are 2 floppies in the Boot Magic Rescue set; the first is a boot disk, and the second is the program disk (to run BM from DOS).

So what floppies are you using? Partition Magic floppies (which are the same as well-- one boot and one program disk)?

Got an old 98 or ME boot floppy around? I don't quite know what you've done, but it looks like they may be your only hope. Try http://www.bootdisk.com.
 
Old 07-08-2004, 10:42 PM   #6
d4d4n9
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Hi renalmirol,
Did your RedHat 9 installation prepared bootloader?. Which one did it prepare. Grub or lilo ?
I am using MDK10.0 now and use grub bootloader.
As an illustration, below is my 2 hard disks partitions :

Code:
hda1	fat32	win_c	windowsXP
hda5	fat32	win_d	data

hda6	ext3	swap	mdk9.2
hda7	ext3	/boot
hda8	ext3	/
hda9	ext3	/usr
hda10	ext3	/home

hdb5	ext3	swap	mdk10.0
hdb6	ext3	/boot
hdb7	ext3	/
hdb8	ext3	/usr
hdb9	ext3	/home
As bootloader, I used grub with menu.lst as below :

Code:
timeout 20
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
default 0

title Windows_XP
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

title Mandrake_10.0
kernel (hd1,5)/vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk root=/dev/hdb7 devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hdb5 splash=silent
initrd (hd1,5)/initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img

title Mandrake_9.2
kernel (hd0,6)/vmlinuz-2.4.22-10mdk root=/dev/hda8 devfs=mount splash=silent acpi=ht resume=/dev/hdb5
initrd (hd0,6)/initrd-2.4.22-10mdk.img

title floppy
root (fd0)
chainloader +1
I also tried to use lilo, and I did not have any problem on login to my box.
My lilo.conf is as below :

Code:
# File generated by DrakX/drakboot
# WARNING: do not forget to run lilo after modifying this file

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
default="Windows_XP"
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=200
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
other=/dev/hda1
	label="Windows_XP"
	table=/dev/hda
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk
	label="Mandrake_10.0"
	root=/dev/hdb7
	initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img
	append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hdb5 splash=silent"
	read-only
image=/home/amri/distro/mdk92/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.22-10mdk
	label="Mandrake_9.2"
	root=/dev/hda8
	initrd=/home/amri/distro/mdk92/boot/initrd-2.4.22-10mdk.img
	append="devfs=mount splash=silent acpi=ht resume=/dev/hdb5"
	read-only
other=/dev/fd0
	label="floppy"
	unsafe
IMHO, you can use multiboot like you planned, if you know what to include in to your grub or lilo bootloder
As the above just an illusrtration, the details of your bootloaders should have to be changed to match with your box.

Hope this help.
 
Old 07-09-2004, 12:12 AM   #7
renalmirol
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Hi d4, thanks for your reply. My RH9 used GRUB, but now I'm having a bigger problem getting anything to boot. After I used the Boot Magic Rescue diskette, Linux no longer boots. As soon as I can boot something, I look forward to using your code to similarly configure my menu.lst file. However, I thought I could simplify matters by using Partition and Boot Magic, but apparently not.

Motub, my Partition Magic 8.0 uses 2 diskettes, but Boot Magic only uses 1. The PM diskettes did fix several partition errors, but I still can't boot from XP or Linux. Will reinstalling XP using the boot floppy from bootdisk.com and my XP CD erase data files i.e. reformat the HD before reinstall?

Last edited by renalmirol; 07-09-2004 at 12:18 AM.
 
Old 07-09-2004, 09:13 AM   #8
motub
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You're right, it does have just 1 floppy.

You tried booting from the XP CD, but got "the same message"-- that suggests that you still have the HDD set as the first boot device in your BIOS. Reboot and set the CD as the first boot device (and don't forget to "hit any key to boot from CD" as the Windows install CD requires, otherwise it will go to the next boot device, which, as we know, does not work atm).

But here's what I would do:

1) Boot from the RedHat CD in Rescue Mode and reinstall GRUB to the root Linux partition, rather than the MBR.

2) Boot from the XP (or Server 2003, whichever was the most recent Windows you installed) CD and go to the Recovery Console, log in as Admin and type FIXMBR to restore the Windows bootloader.

3) Boot into Windows and go to Boot Magic Configuration, re-enable Boot Magic, and create a new BM entry pointing to the Linux partition.

That is essentially how I fixed the couple of distros in the Massive Multiboot which refused to allow me to install their bootloader to the root Linux partition, but would only install to the MBR. I usually didn't have any problems, though, because I pre-partitioned my drives under Windows beforehand, thus I already knew where I was installing every distro. So all I had to do was create entries to the (at that time) empty partitions in Boot Magic before even installing the distros, and so (as long as the distro allowed me to install the bootloader to the root Linux partition) on the first reboot after installing, BootMagic had working entries to the newly installed distro.

Just something to keep in mind if you want to add more distros in the future.
 
Old 07-09-2004, 10:29 AM   #9
renalmirol
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Motub, thanks for your suggestions; I'll let you know how it goes.
 
Old 07-13-2004, 01:40 AM   #10
renalmirol
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Motub,

Based on a warning, FIXMBR seems to write a NEW master boot record instead of RESTORE it. Is there another way to boot to XP besides FIXMBR because losing all of my data and programs is a last resort to saving my hard drive?

I was able to boot to RH9 in Rescue Mode.

I also pre-partitioned my HD with Partition Magic and created an entry with Boot Magic, but I must have made a mistake in the bootloader section of the RH9 install process.
 
Old 07-13-2004, 01:12 PM   #11
motub
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The master boot record does not affect your data and programs. Whichever bootloader is on the MBR, and whether or not it is able to access all OSes on your system, the OS itself is undisturbed.

So, even if I were to reinstall the Windows bootloader, and thereby become unable to access my Linux installation, there would be nothing wrong with the Linux installation, and at the moment when I installed a bootloader that was able to access it, or reconfigured the bootloader I was using, I would then be able to access it normally.

What mistake do you think you have made with the RH9 bootloader install? Is there some reason that you can't just boot RH in rescue mode, fix the error, then re-implement Boot Magic as previously suggested?
 
Old 07-14-2004, 06:47 PM   #12
renalmirol
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1. In Rescue Mode, I mounted the system to the root environment from the shell – “chroot - /mnt/sysimage”. Do you mean reinstall GRUB in Rescue Mode because after this, I could only “exit” to reboot? Upon reboot, I chose to reinstall RH9 from the menu that included Rescue Mode.

“Install” goes through the process until the following warning which I also got during my initial Install:
“Unable to align partition properly. This probably means that another partitioning tool generated an incorrect partition table, because it didn’t have the correct BIOS geometry. It is safe to ignore, but ignoring may cause (fixable) problems with some boot loaders.”

After clicking “ignore” instead of “cancel”, I “Perform an upgrade of an existing installation” instead of a new installation. However, after “Next”, I get:
“The partition table in device hda was unreadable. To create new partitions it must be initialized, causing loss of ALL DATA on this drive. This operation will override previous installation choices about which drives to ignore. Would you like to initialize the drive, erasing ALL DATA?” I cliked “No”.

I then chose “Create new boot loader configuration” from a menu that also had “Update boot loader configuration” and “Skip boot loader updating” because “Update …” was “greyed-out”. I kept GRUB (“installed on /dev/hda”) because it was the default boot loader. LILO and “None” were the other choices.

RH9 went on “/dev/hdb3”, and DOS on “/dev/hdb5”. “Configure advanced boot loader options” was checked. Next, I clicked “/dev/hdb2 First sector of boot partition” instead of “/dev/hdba Master Boot Record (MBR)” and left “Force LBA32” unchecked. I kept the drive order as hda then hdb. XP is on hda and RH9 on hdb. However, after all this, I still get: “Invalid system disk. Replace the disk, and then press any key”.

2. Contrary to the Windows warning, I understand now that the MBR doesn’t directly affect data and programs, thanks . However, after I type FIXMBR, I get “new (MBR) successfully written”, but still can’t get the Windows boot loader to work, instead get “Invalid system disk. Replace the disk, and then press any key” . I’ve tried to give more detail, so the problem can be diagnosed better? Any other ideas?

Motub, I appreciate all of your "guru" time

Last edited by renalmirol; 07-14-2004 at 06:55 PM.
 
Old 07-14-2004, 08:14 PM   #13
motub
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I am not certain that you should have left "force LBA" unchecked. It sounds like you have a disk problem of some sort, which is preventing any bootloader from being correctly written to the MBR.

Very much not fond of any error like "The partition table in device hda was unreadable", especially after something like "Unable to align partition properly."

It sounds to me like RedHat is not BS-ing you. There's something wrong. However, 1) since RedHat themselves say this is fixable, they ought to know how to fix it.

So I would check the RedHat site for possible solutions to what is apparently a known error of some sort.

2) This sounds an awful lot like the problem that a lot of people are having with FC2. You might want to read LWN: Making Fedora Core 2 and Windows play well together and see if the solutions there solve your issues as well.

3) What kind of computer is this? Is it by chance a laptop or a "brand-name" off-the-shelf PC? Because the other thing that this sounds like it could be is the "hidden system restore partition" problem that can occur on such PCs when one tries to install Linux or reinstall Windows without taking into account that the MBR is "connected" to a hidden partition containing all the preinstalled software on the system, which is often located at the front of the drive, where the MBR normally resides on "normal" machines. (Sorry, I don't consider hidden partitions that you yourself didn't hide, normal).

You're very welcome for the time. I hope that one of these ideas can lead us in the general direction of a solution (if not directly to the solution itself ).
 
Old 07-15-2004, 11:01 PM   #14
d4d4n9
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Hi renalmirol,
Pity that you still bugged by this problem. Keep on trying.
One thing on my mind. Have you tried to use any livecd distro like Knoppix to login to linux and then mount your RH9 partition ?
May be then you can chroot into RH9 system and reinstall your GRUB bootloader.
Just another path you could explore
 
Old 07-19-2004, 06:50 PM   #15
renalmirol
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Quote:
Originally posted by motub
I am not certain that you should have left "force LBA" unchecked. It sounds like you have a disk problem of some sort, which is preventing any bootloader from being correctly written to the MBR.

Very much not fond of any error like "The partition table in device hda was unreadable", especially after something like "Unable to align partition properly."

It sounds to me like RedHat is not BS-ing you. There's something wrong. However, 1) since RedHat themselves say this is fixable, they ought to know how to fix it.

So I would check the RedHat site for possible solutions to what is apparently a known error of some sort.

2) This sounds an awful lot like the problem that a lot of people are having with FC2. You might want to read LWN: Making Fedora Core 2 and Windows play well together and see if the solutions there solve your issues as well.

3) What kind of computer is this? Is it by chance a laptop or a "brand-name" off-the-shelf PC? Because the other thing that this sounds like it could be is the "hidden system restore partition" problem that can occur on such PCs when one tries to install Linux or reinstall Windows without taking into account that the MBR is "connected" to a hidden partition containing all the preinstalled software on the system, which is often located at the front of the drive, where the MBR normally resides on "normal" machines. (Sorry, I don't consider hidden partitions that you yourself didn't hide, normal).

You're very welcome for the time. I hope that one of these ideas can lead us in the general direction of a solution (if not directly to the solution itself ).
I'll try "force LBA" next time.

I'll also check the RedHat website for RH specific issues.

Thanks for the FC2 link.

I have an HP a405n that does have a "hidden system restore partition". These type of machines are now normally sold to newbies . So how do I take this into account?

How could I use Partition Magic to recognize my whole 2nd HD because it only sees the sectors after my original 80 GB NTFS partition? I need to fix this partition somehow. In the past, PM has shown all partitions, including those hidden. After I scavenged, formatted, and installed XP on a different 1st HD, PM still doesn't recognize the first 80 out of 250 GB. I could try reformatting the recognized 170 GB partition. Symantec charges $30 for tech support and I couldn't find a user forum.
 
  


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