[Wolves] Hello - first post from me !

[Dick Turpin]

On Sat, 2005-05-07 at 23:58 +0100, Andy Wootton wrote:

> Tim Childe wrote: 
> 
> > (BTW I hope you all use software that threads emails, or this will 
> > probably not mean anything to you now !)

Yes we do (most of us anyway) plus we cut mails down for easy reading.

> > I've got all grub back, and in Ubuntu I can see all partitions.  So 
> > I'm going to back up my C Drive to my D Drive (different partitions, 
> > same disk - but best i can manage)

So is the problem now, you cant boot Windows? I've lost track of whats
going on as well.

I thought originally you couldn't boot Ubantu?

> > Then I may remove  and recreate the Primary DOS partion that's causing 
> > the trouble and copy the files back.

?? why is a DOS partition causing a problem?, did I miss a mail you
sent?

I take it you have one hard drive which is split into 3?, 

in Windows speak C, D, E.

C being your Windows primary master D Logical slave and E Ubantu
primary, seeing as Windows was your defacto system prior to the Ubantu
install attempt I'd get myself back to that state first, blow away E (if
thats where Ubantu is) do an overlay install of Windows this should get
your Windows system back up and running as it will over write MBR.

I don't know if Ubantu has this option (I don't use it) but if it has
the ability to create a floppy boot loader I'd go down that path first
if you do a fresh install, that way your not going to mess up your
Windows again you can always re-install Grub or Lilo later if everything
is OK.
 
> > I know this works for OS/2, but I've never tried with windows - will 
> > it all still boot ??

Not if you try this with C primary unless you use 'Drive Copy'.

> > (I'm assuming I'll copy all the files - they won't be locked because 
> > I'm in linux not windows)
> 
> Fair assumption, AFAIK. It is essential that you initialise the DOS 
> partition as bootable/system/some-other-flag-than-default or it still 
> won't be bootable.
> If this doesn't work and you are forced to re-install Windows then don't 
> expect it to display any sign of intelligence. It may consider it can 
> just tread over every partition it sees without warning as Kevan implied 
> earlier by the order he suggested reinstalling everything.

Yep Kevan is correct see my paragraph above regarding overlay
installation.

Have you tried that Ultimate boot disk I told you about? or smart boot
loader thats a good tool as well.

> I don't think you need to worry about that unless it is an old system 
> where the BIOS can only boot from low numbered cylinders
>>
> Linux trial-by-installion is part of the official training package. If 
> it goes badly then it's the hardest thing you ever do.

Yep, there's nothing better than proving the superiority of man by
spending an afternoon shouting at you're  PC "Work you b&%£?@$d".

> > 2) My wife is getting really annoyed at not being able to use the PC !!
> 
> She's right, you need an extra PC for R&D :-)
> Should I go into hiding?

Get her an X Box, worked for me!

-- 
Regards
Dick Turpin
"Stand and Deliver"
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