[Wolves] Hello - first post from me !

[Tim Childe]

OK quick summary

2 HDD drives

1 paritioned C,D,E for windows
2 Ubuntu partitioned however it installed.

First everything worked OK.

Then I ran grub-install /dev/hde or possibly hde1 by mistake
After this windows (C) would not boot.

To get windows back and stuff linux I did the standard fdisk /mbr
Now grub was also gone, but the boot just went 'GRUB' where I wanted
Starting Windows95 etc

This is where I spotted C drive was unrecognised media Fail Retry Abort etc

I've since booted into recovery mode (ubuntu) and re run grub-install,
which has put me back near the start - ie Ubuntu works fine, boot
selecting Windows to boot gets 'Error 18'

>From Ubunto I can access all drives, and all data is still there,
including bootsect.dos, io.sys, ntdetect !! etc


The only other clue I have is that Win 98 Dos fdisk labels the c
partistion as system Unkown - but it have the type etc corretc, and
it's active etc.

Weird !!

Tim.C

ps thanks for all the help so far.


On 5/8/05, Dick Turpin <highwayman.turpin at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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> 


-- 
Tim.C