Very Computer

HELP!

I have tried using Linux and Windows-ME together and have somehow screwed up
the whole system.

Can anyone help me get Win ME to boot properly from my first hard drive? SYS
c: and FDISK /mbr don't work!

Here's the sad story:
System: 2 hard drives. Drive 1 for Windows, Drive 2 for Linux.

Drive 1 split into 6MB primary partition (c: drive) and 2MB extended
partition (D: drive)

Drive 2 dedicated to Linux, Mandrake 7.2 (was) installed.

During installation of Mandrake 7.2, the GRUB bootloader set for dual
booting to Windows and Linux. GRUB seems to have been installed on the first
sector of the second disk, and has also overwritten the MBR of the first
disk (it seems).

I had to set the BIOS to boot from the second  drive, and then GRUB seemed
to work OK. When booting to Windows, GRUB appeared to make the first drive
active, then chainload from +1 (which I take it is the second sector of the
activated primary drive).

I recently installed a new video card (Hercules Prophet 64MB), which Linux
didn't recognize. Despite trying  XFDrake I was unable to get Linux to
recognize the card, and was unable to start X. I decided to upgrade to Linux
Mandrake 8.2.

But before doing that, I wanted to restore the standard booting of Windows
from the primary drive. I first made a Windows ME recovery disk.

I tried FDISK /mbr which "ran" but doesn't seem to have done what I
expected. GRUB disappeared. Win-ME booted but only from the second disk, not
the first.

I then tried SYS c: but Win ME wouldn't allow it, saying I had to run from
the installation CD-ROM .

I have booted from the Win ME CD-rom, then made SYS c:, and FDISK /mbr.

Nothing seems to work!

I have ended up with the following situation:

If I boot from the first drive, I get a message "can't find file
BTMAGIC.IMG", after that it says "no operating system installed". I get this
booting from the Win ME rescue diskettes as well. I can't find that file
anywhere on the Windows C: or D: drives.

I have to boot from the second drive. This boots directly to Win ME, on the
first drive, without invoking GRUB. I think when I did FDISK /mbr, it
replaced the boot record of the second drive, instead of the first drive,
although that is not supposed to happen.

Using FDISK to see the partition tables, Drive 1 is shown as active, with a
primary and extended partitions, using FAT32. Drive 2 is unrecognizable
(Windows doesn't "see" Linux).

A quick check with an old Partition Magic program (PQMagicT), indicates
similar to FDISK, and recognizes the Linux partitions on the second drive,
and says the primary partition of both drives are "active". However it gives
Error 106 (whatever that is) with the partition on the primary drive.

So I can still boot Windows ME as long as I use the boot from the second
drive. I can't see the second drive from Windows (normal). Also, I have lost
Linux altogether, and I dare not install Mandrake 8.2, in case it screws up
the boot record of the second drive, and leaves me Windowless (which I do
NOT want), with the only option a re-install of Win ME.

Maybe if I copy the first sector of the second hard drive to the first
sector of the first hard drive, this might work but I do not know how to do
it. Maybe I have to take the second sector of the first drive (chainload
+1)?

Can any one offer any help, please?

You had reset your bios to boot from the second drive when you
installed grub.

Did you re-reset your bios to boot from the first drive after you had
uninstalled linux?

[ Excessive crossposting trimmed ]
On Sun, 1 Sep 2002 15:42:20 +0200, GeeBee staggered into the Black Sun
and said:

Quote:> Can anyone help me get Win ME to boot properly from my first hard
> drive? SYS c: and FDISK /mbr don't work!

> During installation of Mandrake 7.2, the GRUB bootloader set for dual
> booting to Windows and Linux. GRUB seems to have been installed on the
> first sector of the second disk,
> I recently installed a new video card (Hercules Prophet 64MB), which
> Linux didn't recognize.

Those cards have been EOLed and they were of questionable quality
anyway... but you can get X servers and an evil binary-only kernel
module for Linux from http://www.powervr.com/Downloads.asp .  IIRC, no
Linux distro includes these things as the license prohibits
redistribution.  Stupid video card companies....

Quote:> But before doing that, I wanted to restore the standard booting of
> Windows from the primary drive. I first made a Windows ME recovery
> disk.  I tried FDISK /mbr which "ran" but doesn't seem to have done
> what I expected. GRUB disappeared. Win-ME booted but only from the
> second disk, not the first.  I then tried SYS c: but Win ME wouldn't
> allow it, saying I had to run from the installation CD-ROM .

'Doze lost the ability to make a real DOS boot disk starting with
LoseME.  Find a 9x system and FORMAT A: ; SYS A: , COPY all the relevant
junk from C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ , and that will work much better.  Use dd
on your Linux system to make a raw copy of that disk, store that raw
copy in a few places so you'll always have a real DOS bootdisk
available, no matter what Bill decides to do next.

Quote:> If I boot from the first drive, I get a message "can't find file
> BTMAGIC.IMG", after that it says "no operating system installed".

BTMAGIC?  Did you have the 3rd-party "Boot Magic" utility installed at
one point?  What's "fdisk -l /dev/hda" report?

Quote:> get this booting from the Win ME rescue diskettes as well. I can't
> find that file anywhere on the Windows C: or D: drives.

It's not part of Windows.

Quote:> on the first drive, without invoking GRUB. I think when I did FDISK
> /mbr, it replaced the boot record of the second drive, instead of the
> first drive, although that is not supposed to happen.

DOS FDISK uses the BIOS to read and write to hard disks.  Linux
bootloaders can remap drives using the BIOS, so that /dev/hdb looks like
"drive 1" to the BIOS, and /dev/hda looks like "drive 2".  This is
useful since it allows you to have a 'Doze installation on /dev/hdb, but
it can lead to things like what you described above.

Quote:> Using FDISK to see the partition tables, [...] A quick check with an
> old Partition Magic program (PQMagicT), gives Error 106 (whatever that
> is) with the partition on the primary drive.

FDISK is brain-damaged and not to be trusted.  Use fdisk instead.
PQMagic is a little better, but it still gets confused when it
shouldn't.

Quote:> Maybe if I copy the first sector of the second hard drive to the first
> sector of the first hard drive, this might work but I do not know how
> to do it.

You don't want to do this.  The first sector of the second hard disk
contains the partition table of the second hard disk!  Cold-boot the
machine from a real DOS bootdisk, then try SYS C: again.  If that
doesn't work, use Tom's RootBoot or the Linuxcare BBC to get in and
retrieve the output from "fdisk -l", and post that output.  

Quote:> Can any one offer any help, please?

Ditch LoseME and use 2K if you can, it's actually stable enough to be a
workstation OS.

--
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin /
http://www.brainbench.com     /  "He is a rhythmic movement of the
-----------------------------/    penguins, is Tux." --MegaHAL

Thanks for the Info, there's lots there to study :-).

Unfortunately I've lost access to Linux on the second drive (unless I can
find a boot floppy), so I'm limited on what I can do. I'll take a trip round
your advice and see what turns up -
thanxalot.

Geebee

Quote:> [ Excessive crossposting trimmed ]
> On Sun, 1 Sep 2002 15:42:20 +0200, GeeBee staggered into the Black Sun
> and said:
> > Can anyone help me get Win ME to boot properly from my first hard
> > drive? SYS c: and FDISK /mbr don't work!

> > During installation of Mandrake 7.2, the GRUB bootloader set for dual
> > booting to Windows and Linux. GRUB seems to have been installed on the
> > first sector of the second disk,

> > I recently installed a new video card (Hercules Prophet 64MB), which
> > Linux didn't recognize.

> Those cards have been EOLed and they were of questionable quality
> anyway... but you can get X servers and an evil binary-only kernel
> module for Linux from http://www.powervr.com/Downloads.asp .  IIRC, no
> Linux distro includes these things as the license prohibits
> redistribution.  Stupid video card companies....

> > But before doing that, I wanted to restore the standard booting of
> > Windows from the primary drive. I first made a Windows ME recovery
> > disk.  I tried FDISK /mbr which "ran" but doesn't seem to have done
> > what I expected. GRUB disappeared. Win-ME booted but only from the
> > second disk, not the first.  I then tried SYS c: but Win ME wouldn't
> > allow it, saying I had to run from the installation CD-ROM .

> 'Doze lost the ability to make a real DOS boot disk starting with
> LoseME.  Find a 9x system and FORMAT A: ; SYS A: , COPY all the relevant
> junk from C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ , and that will work much better.  Use dd
> on your Linux system to make a raw copy of that disk, store that raw
> copy in a few places so you'll always have a real DOS bootdisk
> available, no matter what Bill decides to do next.

> > If I boot from the first drive, I get a message "can't find file
> > BTMAGIC.IMG", after that it says "no operating system installed".

> BTMAGIC?  Did you have the 3rd-party "Boot Magic" utility installed at
> one point?  What's "fdisk -l /dev/hda" report?

> > get this booting from the Win ME rescue diskettes as well. I can't
> > find that file anywhere on the Windows C: or D: drives.

> It's not part of Windows.

> > on the first drive, without invoking GRUB. I think when I did FDISK
> > /mbr, it replaced the boot record of the second drive, instead of the
> > first drive, although that is not supposed to happen.

> DOS FDISK uses the BIOS to read and write to hard disks.  Linux
> bootloaders can remap drives using the BIOS, so that /dev/hdb looks like
> "drive 1" to the BIOS, and /dev/hda looks like "drive 2".  This is
> useful since it allows you to have a 'Doze installation on /dev/hdb, but
> it can lead to things like what you described above.

> > Using FDISK to see the partition tables, [...] A quick check with an
> > old Partition Magic program (PQMagicT), gives Error 106 (whatever that
> > is) with the partition on the primary drive.

> FDISK is brain-damaged and not to be trusted.  Use fdisk instead.
> PQMagic is a little better, but it still gets confused when it
> shouldn't.

> > Maybe if I copy the first sector of the second hard drive to the first
> > sector of the first hard drive, this might work but I do not know how
> > to do it.

> You don't want to do this.  The first sector of the second hard disk
> contains the partition table of the second hard disk!  Cold-boot the
> machine from a real DOS bootdisk, then try SYS C: again.  If that
> doesn't work, use Tom's RootBoot or the Linuxcare BBC to get in and
> retrieve the output from "fdisk -l", and post that output.

> > Can any one offer any help, please?

> Ditch LoseME and use 2K if you can, it's actually stable enough to be a
> workstation OS.

> --
> Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to
see
> Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin /
> http://www.brainbench.com     /  "He is a rhythmic movement of the
> -----------------------------/    penguins, is Tux." --MegaHAL

Don't work why?  Because they're not there?  Did you boot the CD?  The only
way to get to a proper DOS prompt with Winblows ME is to boot from the CD
and tell it you want to boot to a command prompt, or something.  I forget
what the prompts look like, but that's the ticket.  Then you should be able
to SYS C: and FDISK /MBR the partition.  Make sure you have a Linux boot
disk first unless you want to pay a visit to a rescue disk...

--
Michael McIntyre         USDA zone 6b in SW VA, USA

---------========[Does your ls -O?]=======---------
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/index.html

1) Found a Linux Boot disk and managed to get back into Linunx.
fdisk -l /dev/hda gives:

*****************************************************
Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 1057 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *         1       765   6144831    b  Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda2           766      1055   2329425    5  Extended
/dev/hda5           766      1024   2080386    b  Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda6          1025      1055    248976   82  Linux swap
*****************************************************
I also found a Boot Magic rescue disk, but I don't know where it came from.
In the past I have tried Red hat 5.2, Win Linux, Caldera 2.3 and Mandrake
7.2. It might have come from any of the last 3. The Boot Magic rescue disk
seems to have re-installed LILO on the MBR of the second drive!

However, the present /dev/hda was re-installed with Win Me just before
installing Mandrake 7.2 on the second drive, so I still don't see where the
btmagic.img has come from..

Trying a boot disk from Win 98 didn't work. Boots to a: drive and says
Windows won't run under DOS 8.0.

This seems to be getting more and more complicated :-(

Quote:> [ Excessive crossposting trimmed ]
> On Sun, 1 Sep 2002 15:42:20 +0200, GeeBee staggered into the Black Sun
> and said:
> > Can anyone help me get Win ME to boot properly from my first hard
> > drive? SYS c: and FDISK /mbr don't work!

> > During installation of Mandrake 7.2, the GRUB bootloader set for dual
> > booting to Windows and Linux. GRUB seems to have been installed on the
> > first sector of the second disk,

> > I recently installed a new video card (Hercules Prophet 64MB), which
> > Linux didn't recognize.

> Those cards have been EOLed and they were of questionable quality
> anyway... but you can get X servers and an evil binary-only kernel
> module for Linux from http://www.powervr.com/Downloads.asp .  IIRC, no
> Linux distro includes these things as the license prohibits
> redistribution.  Stupid video card companies....

> > But before doing that, I wanted to restore the standard booting of
> > Windows from the primary drive. I first made a Windows ME recovery
> > disk.  I tried FDISK /mbr which "ran" but doesn't seem to have done
> > what I expected. GRUB disappeared. Win-ME booted but only from the
> > second disk, not the first.  I then tried SYS c: but Win ME wouldn't
> > allow it, saying I had to run from the installation CD-ROM .

> 'Doze lost the ability to make a real DOS boot disk starting with
> LoseME.  Find a 9x system and FORMAT A: ; SYS A: , COPY all the relevant
> junk from C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ , and that will work much better.  Use dd
> on your Linux system to make a raw copy of that disk, store that raw
> copy in a few places so you'll always have a real DOS bootdisk
> available, no matter what Bill decides to do next.

> > If I boot from the first drive, I get a message "can't find file
> > BTMAGIC.IMG", after that it says "no operating system installed".

> BTMAGIC?  Did you have the 3rd-party "Boot Magic" utility installed at
> one point?  What's "fdisk -l /dev/hda" report?

> > get this booting from the Win ME rescue diskettes as well. I can't
> > find that file anywhere on the Windows C: or D: drives.

> It's not part of Windows.

> > on the first drive, without invoking GRUB. I think when I did FDISK
> > /mbr, it replaced the boot record of the second drive, instead of the
> > first drive, although that is not supposed to happen.

> DOS FDISK uses the BIOS to read and write to hard disks.  Linux
> bootloaders can remap drives using the BIOS, so that /dev/hdb looks like
> "drive 1" to the BIOS, and /dev/hda looks like "drive 2".  This is
> useful since it allows you to have a 'Doze installation on /dev/hdb, but
> it can lead to things like what you described above.

> > Using FDISK to see the partition tables, [...] A quick check with an
> > old Partition Magic program (PQMagicT), gives Error 106 (whatever that
> > is) with the partition on the primary drive.

> FDISK is brain-damaged and not to be trusted.  Use fdisk instead.
> PQMagic is a little better, but it still gets confused when it
> shouldn't.

> > Maybe if I copy the first sector of the second hard drive to the first
> > sector of the first hard drive, this might work but I do not know how
> > to do it.

> You don't want to do this.  The first sector of the second hard disk
> contains the partition table of the second hard disk!  Cold-boot the
> machine from a real DOS bootdisk, then try SYS C: again.  If that
> doesn't work, use Tom's RootBoot or the Linuxcare BBC to get in and
> retrieve the output from "fdisk -l", and post that output.

> > Can any one offer any help, please?

> Ditch LoseME and use 2K if you can, it's actually stable enough to be a
> workstation OS.

> --
> Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to
see
> Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin /
> http://www.brainbench.com     /  "He is a rhythmic movement of the
> -----------------------------/    penguins, is Tux." --MegaHAL