Re: MBR changes with 9.1/GRUB

From: John Stumbles (postmaster_at_127.0.0.1)
Date: 10/14/04

  • Next message: Zurab Davitiani: "Re: KDE 3.3.1 released" 
    Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 23:26:25 GMT

    Mike wrote:
    > A. Cook wrote:
    >
    >> I hate to preface posts like this, but I'll say it: This might not be
    >> the
    >> appropriate forum/newsgroup, but I'd sooner eat glass than wade through
    >> Windows help forums. That said, here's the situation...
    >>
    >> 1. First hard drive has Windows 98 installed, but will not boot.
    >>
    >> 2. Windows 2000 was removed from the second drive to make room for
    >> Suse 9.1
    >>
    >> 3. Suse 9.1 is up, running, and rocking on second drive.
    >>
    >> 4. I botched the uninstall of Windows 2000 and now I cannot boot
    >> Windows 98
    >> due to *something* looking for the missing NTLDR (missing because I
    >> removed
    >> it in a heavy-handed attempt to fix the MBR on drive 1 -- prior to
    >> installing Suse).
    >>
    >> I get the option to load "Windows" when I restart the machine, but if I
    >> choose Windows, I get "NTLDR missing, press a key to continue," which
    >> will
    >> loop until restart.
    >> GRUB2 gives the following...
    >> _______________________________
    >>
    >> root (hd0,0)
    >> Filesystem type is fat, partition type 0xc
    >> chainloader +1
    >>
    >> NTLDR is missing
    >> Press any key to restart
    >>
    >> (press a key, then get...)
    >>
    >> GRUB Loading stage 2...
    >>
    >> (and then I'm back at the boot menu)
    >> ________________________________
    >>
    >> Now, I realize this isn't a Suse problem, but I'm wondering if I can use
    >> Suse/GRUB2 to fix it. I would like to be able to boot to Windows 98 on
    >> occasion and do not plan on ever re-installing Windows 2000. So, can
    >> anyone
    >> direct me to a good resource or have any thoughts? What in the world is
    >> calling that missing NTLDR file? And why won't it stop!?!
    >> Thanks!
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >>
    > You might try booting with a windows 98 startup disk which has fdisk on
    > it. Once booted type fdisk /mbr. This should restore the master boot
    > record and allow windows to boot. This will wipe out grub, so using
    > your suse CD, boot the system from the CD and after much effort locate
    > where you can boot the installed system. Then when you get suse up you
    > can go into yast and choose system, boot loader configuration, then
    > restore grub that way. You may need to allow it to write to the MBR in
    > order to get it to take. It is also the time to take care of boot order
    > priorities so you don't have to stand around to keep it from going into
    > the "wrong" operating system.

    I'm not sure it's the MBR. On my machine I have WinME and W2K (both on
    the one and only drive) and the ntldr is in the root of the WinME
    partition.

    > lsl /WinME/
    total 3573
    ...
    -rwxrwxr-x 1 root users 235 2004-09-18 14:35 autoexec.bat
    ...
    -rwxrwxr-x 1 root users 149 2004-01-07 00:50 boot.ini
    -rwxrwxr-x 1 root users 83264 2003-10-14 18:30 bootlog.prv
    -rwxrwxr-x 1 root users 83382 2004-01-02 01:51 bootlog.txt
    ...
    -r-xr-xr-x 1 root users 512 2004-01-11 00:27 bootsect.dos
    ...
    -rwxrwxr-x 1 root users 93040 2000-06-08 17:00 command.com
    ...
    -rwxrwxr-x 1 root users 0 2004-09-18 14:35 config.sys
    ...
    -r-xr-xr-x 1 root users 110080 2000-06-08 17:00 io.sys
    -r-xr-xr-x 1 root users 1660 2003-09-06 13:02 msdos.sys
    ...
    -r-xr-xr-x 1 root users 34468 1999-12-07 11:00 ntdetect.com
    -r-xr-xr-x 1 root users 214416 1999-12-07 11:00 ntldr

    IIRC `sys C:` from a 98 boot floppy will restore the 98 bootup. (You
    need sys.com or .exe (forget which it is) on the floppy.)

    Alternatively if you have a W2K install disk start the install process
    and abort after the first reboot, then edit boot.ini so that 98 is the
    only option. (and delete all the crap that the installer has put into
    some temporary directory).

    You could even use the NT bootloader it as your bootloader for choosing
    Linux or Windows on bootup: it's quite nice for this because you can
    easily hack up a little script to change boot.ini so that on the next
    reboot the OS of your choice gets loaded by default. In a past life I
    had c. 60 machines which could be programmed by remote control to boot
    into 95, 98, NT, 2K, rh or solaris.

  • Next message: Zurab Davitiani: "Re: KDE 3.3.1 released"

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