mbr problems

[rollo58]

Hello

I too am new to Linux, and am running into problems. I was trying to instal Red Hat 7.0. I have two hard drives, the master has Windows95/fat32. I tried to install Linux on the secondary drive, and thought I had been successful. The drive was empty, and I used Disk Druid to partition it for Linux. I tried partitioning manually, and then realized
that I wasn't setting a boot partition so I chose the automatic partition. I also created the boot floppy.

When I try to reboot (via LILO-no diskette), I get a capital L, with a blinking cursor. I am assumung that it is trying to proceed with LILO but is failing. When I use the floppy, I get LILO boot prompt, type Linux (or let it proceed after 10 seconcds) and get an "error 0x10".

I have also tried clearing that drive (re-partitioning) and installing a non-partitioned on my master drive, with the same results.

Now I can't get to windows or Linux at all. My C drive contents are still there, but When I boot from a DOS floppy, and try a:fdisk /mbr from a c: prompt, I get 'bad command or filename'. Booting from the Sony restore CD allows me to successfully do fdisk a: /mbr, but when I reinstall Windows and boot, it can't find an OS. Also, I can no longer see my secondary drive...is it trying to boot from my secondary drive since that is where I originally installed Linux? I am assuming it can only write mbr to the master drive. I am really lost, and needing some help.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[Tiger]

Sounds like your DOS floppy doesn't have fdisk on it.

Boot with the sony CD again and do fdisk c: /mbr not fdisk a: /mbr.

I'm not sure whether RH 7.0 has the new LILO in it or not. If it doesn't you'll need to make sure your Linux /boot partition falls entirely below 8 Gig on the boot drive.

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[This message has been edited by Tiger (edited 23 January 2001).]

[rollo58]

I think I did that before, but I'll do it again. I am assuming then, I have to reinstall Windows, to get the mbr written to again? Thanks

[rollo58]

I am getting 'parameter format not correct - c:' when I try fdisk c: /mbr

[WeDeliver]

dont specify the drive letter.

[Tiger]

Wedeliver is right, my bad. I can't think early in the morning. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

If your windows partiton partition is still intact doing and fdisk /mbr will simply re-write the mbr for Win9x. Go ahead and reboot. If windows is still intact it should work.

If it doesn't you can try this.
Get into fdisk, choose option 4 to display the partition information. In the partition information, if the System is listed as FAT16 or FAT32 then type sys c: and hit enter. Re-boot to C:\.

One more suggestion, got to Bootdisks.com (http://www.bootdisks.com), download and make a new Windows boot floppy.


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[This message has been edited by Tiger (edited 23 January 2001).]

[kowalsky]

my two cents added here:
the L with the following blinking cursor is caused by your attempt to install Linux on the secondary hard drive. Basically there are (were) two problems: one is the infamous cylinder 1024 problem which is no longer a problem for 7.2 at least (both LILO and GRUB handle a boot sector beyond the first 8 GB of your first hd); the other is the physical drives - I believe that you're still supposed to put your boot partition on the first hard drive.
good luck,
kowalsky

[rollo58]

I went into fdisk and the first disk it listed was my drive 2...and it noted that there was no partition on it (which is correct as it was my secondary drive).

I changed the 'current fixed disk drive' to 2 and it showed my main 6 gb drive, with a 100% windows fat32 partition...

Is there any significance to the fact that the non-partitioned drive was the first one showing in fdisk? In BIOS, my 6 gb Windows drive was listed as the first to boot...

[rollo58]

In case my previous post was confusing, fdisk listed my non-partitioned 1.5 gb drive as 'Current Fixed Drive 1'
and my windows fat32 as
'Current Fixed Drive 2'

What are my choices here (if I have any)...?

[Tiger]

You can try disconnecting the 1.5G drive. Just reach in and slip the connector off the back of the drive then run fdisk again and see what it says.

Do I have this straight, your boot drive is the 6G and you've got the 1.5G setup as your secondary drive?

Which ever drive boots the system is the one you want to run fdsik /mbr on.



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[rollo58]

OK, I disconnected the 1.5gb drive and booted with my Sony recovery cd in, and instead of the cd booting, LILO overrode and I got the L with the blinking cursor.

How is it that the MBR with LILO is overriding the CD when I have the CD set to run first-onboot in BIOS?

I inserted a DOS diskette and booted ok, but was unable to get fdisk to work so I am gonna try to get a windows boot disk from bootdisk.com as someone suggested.

What a mess.

[rollo58]

I had to get fdisk.exe off the internet, but I got it in and ran it (after disconnectnig the 1.5 gb drive) and the fixed drive 1 is showing, type=PRI DOS, System=FAT32, Usage=100% 6173 mbytes.

I then left fdisk to c prompt, type "sys c:" and received the message..."cannot specify default drive"

[MBMarduk]

Maybe I'm just shooting in the dark here, but this happens.
Have you jumpered the FDDs correctly and put the master on the end of your ribbon cable?

[rollo58]

Thanks everyone for your input...

I think the jumper settings and cable connections are fine, as the 6.5 gb drive has been my primary drive from day 1 and has worked fine, until this installation fiasco (which is my fault for proceeding haphazardly).

Since I have now disconencted the 1.5 gb drive, I wonder if I should run fdisk /mbr again. And if that is the case, do I then need to install Windows yet again?

[Pyrosophy]

Actually I'm pretty sure I know what happened here. LILO must have somehow gotten installed onto a partition as well. Try the following, it worked for me when I had this error:
0.5 You'll need a minimal linux install on the second drive, so reinstall linux with lilo. make the bootdisk. it doesn't matter if lilo tries to reinstall itself
1. boot from a dos bootdisk into dos and do fdisk /mbr.
2. boot from the linux boot disk into linux and do lilo -u /dev/hda (you might get an error saying lilo isn't installed on this disk, that's ok)
3. then do lilo -u /dev/hda1 (if you get an error here, i'm not sure what you're dealing with)
4. Try rebooting and see if windows comes up.
5. if it does, congrats. boot from the linux bootdisk and reinstall lilo with the command 'lilo'.
6. if it doesn't work, I'm not sure what is going on.

You can read over my dealings with this problem here: http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/014254.html

[Tiger]

If the /boot partition for linux is installed on that drive you can boot from the Linux boot floppy and type # /sbin/lilo -v and it will install LILO in the MBR.

With that done you can reboot and when the LILO: prompt comes up type DOS, hit enter and see if LILO will boot Windows.

If not I think we've reached the point of a drive flush and do over. I hope you've got your data backed up. This time when you partition the drive leave enough space on the primary drive for the Linux [/b]"/"[/b] partition. With that done you can install the rest where ever you've got room.



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Badges? We don't need no stinking badges.

[Pyrosophy]

Whatever you do, don't flush the first drive! As long as you can see the data on it, my philosophy is that it CAN be booted somehow.

[Linuxman]

Originally posted by rollo58:
...When I boot from a DOS floppy, and try a:fdisk /mbr from a c: prompt, I get 'bad command or filename'. Booting from the Sony restore CD allows me to successfully do fdisk a: /mbr...

I just want to make sure any newbies who may read this do not get confused with the syntax.

When booting from floppy, the proper syntax is as first listed above:

a:\cd c:
c:\a:fdisk /mbr

the error message was because fdisk was not on the boot floppy.

The second method described is not really appropriate

fdisk a: /mbr

because it is either incorrect or changes the mbr of the floppy disk. So, what rollo did was reset the mbr of the floppy, not the hard drive.

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The Baltimore Ravens are Superbowl bound.

[rollo58]

I wasn't going to flush the drive, as I have some things backed up but not alot. I would prefer to keep fighting this...

A couple of questions.

1. When I try fips with my 6.5 gb drive, it won't let me add a partition beyond 45 mb. Why is that?
2. Pyro, When I go try to install Linux on the secondary 1.5 gb drive as you suggested, I am pretty sure I have to use Disk Druid, right? Otherwise, an automatic partition will be placed on my primary 6.5 drive?

If I use Disk Druid. Do I need to do a boot partition (HDD1), then a root (HHD5) then a swap(HDD6)?

[Pyrosophy]

What you want to do is install linux to the second drive (hdb for the second, hdd for the fourth) and install lilo to hda -- the first hard disk. Windows doesn't need to use the MBR of hda and it looks like lilo has taken it over.

The partition scheme you have seems fine, but you don't really need a boot partition if you're installing it on the very beginning of the 1.5 drive and using lilo.

lilo prints four letters while it is booting up L,I,L,O. When it stops at one it means a certain kind of error is happening. It's up to us to diagnose which one.

Pyro

[The King Ant]

After reading through this whole thing, I've decided this is a very confusing thread...

Here's what I would do:
Make ABSOLUTELY sure that the drive windows is on is the master drive and that the drive you want Linux on is the slave drive. Open your computer and check the jumpers if you have to. You could also try checking by booting of an install cd and typing "rescue" or maybe "linux rescue". Once you're at a shell, type "mkdir /mnt/drivehda1", and then "mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/drivehda1". That should work, but "cd /mnt/drivehda1" and make sure it lists all your windows drive c: stuff.

You shouldn't have any LILO hard drive limiting problems or anything. You want lilo in your MBR, but first you should get windows working...

Boot off of one of them floppies you have with fdisk on it and "fdisk /mbr". Then reboot off of your hard drive and windows should load. If not, then try unplugging the linux drive (power cable and data cable), then booting off of the floppy again and "fdisk /mbr" again and then try to boot off of the hard drive.

Now that you've got windows working, you'll want to have LILO put itself in your MBR and give you the option to boot into Windows or Linux.

Boot off of that Linux Boot disk that was made during installation, and then, as root, type "/sbin/lilo." It should say something like:
Added *Windows
Added Linux
If not, you may want to have a look at your /etc/lilo.conf file and the lilo.conf man page.

[DJ-dOoK]

Let me add another idea.
Just because you did fdisk /mbr does not mean that the windows partition is marked as bootable. I had this problem before and to fix it, I used a utility I have obtained. I would never recommend you using commercial partition software, however this utility I have is a partition manager, very easy and simple. Please E-mail me if you want a copy, I think you may find it to be very handy.

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One day, the DJ declared! Let this OS be taken to the world, and Linux was introduced to many frustrated windows users!

[rollo58]

Thanks for all the ideas, I was out yesterday, and will be trying to resolve things today.

[rollo58]

King Ant

I tried what you said, I installed Linux again onthe slave drive, created boot floppy, rebooted install cd, at shell typed the linux rescue commands you suggested, and it couldn't see my windows drive c stuff...

I can see them (Windows c:/ files) when I boot with a DOS floppy though.

BTW, I used Disk Druid, setting up a / and /swap on hdd1 and hdd5. Also, the boot floppy, just stops at L again.