Re: Cannot boot Windows after running lilo; "A disk read error occurred" "Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"

From: Will Gittoes (AskMeForIt_at_NoSpam.org)
Date: 11/19/04 

Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 16:59:40 +1300

David Jones wrote:
> Hi,
>
> My Mandrake 10.1 dual-boot (Windows XP/Mandrake) was working fine until
> I accidentally ran "lilo" (from Mandrake). The command completed
> without errors but now at the boot menu I can no longer boot into
> Microsoft Windows. It freezes with a black screen and plain text message:
>
> A disk read error occurred
> Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart
>
> .I can boot into Mandrake, no problem.
> From Mandrake I can mount and read the Windows (ntfs) partition, no
> problem.
> Here is my current /etc/lilo.conf:
> boot=/dev/hda
> map=/boot/map
> default="linux_kernel-2.6.3-15mdk"
> keytable=/boot/us.klt
> prompt
> nowarn
> timeout=100
> message=/boot/message
> menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
> image=/boot/vmlinuz
> label="linux"
> root=/dev/hda7
> initrd=/boot/initrd.img
> append="noapic devfs=mount splash=silent"
> vga=788
> read-only
> image=/boot/vmlinuz
> label="linux-nonfb"
> root=/dev/hda7
> initrd=/boot/initrd.img
> append="noapic devfs=mount splash=silent"
> read-only
> other=/dev/hda1
> label="microsoft_windows"
> table=/dev/hda

Try hda1

> map-drive=0x80
> to=0x81
> map-drive=0x81
> to=0x80
> image=/boot/vmlinuz
> label="failsafe"
> root=/dev/hda7
> initrd=/boot/initrd.img
> append="failsafe noapic splash=silent devfs=nomount"
> read-only
> image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-15mdk
> label="linux_kernel-2.6.3-15mdk"
> root=/dev/hda7
> initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.3-15mdk.img
> append="noapic devfs=mount splash=silent"
> vga=788
> read-only
> image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-4mdk
> label="linux_kernel-2.6.3.4mdk"
> root=/dev/hda7
> initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.3-4mdk.img
> append="noapic"
> read-only
> and unfortunately I have no copy of this before I ran lilo.
> Please somebody help!
>
> Regards,
> DJ

What is the output of fdisk -l (Note, that is a lowercase letter L, not
a 1, i or anything else). Needs to be run as root.

If things keep buggering up, make a windows boot disk on another
computer to see if you can boot windows at all.

Or, if you don't mind losing lilo and not being able to get into MDK
then put in the windows 2000/XP cd, get a DOS prompt and:
fixmbr

You'll have to "rescue" linux, by re-installing lilo, if you do that.

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