Upgraded windows & killed bootloader
 

Hey everyone,

I was dual-booting red hat 9 and win98 when i decided to upgrade to xp pro. I did so, and lost grub. My linux boot disk is corrupt, so i cant use it. I tried booting from the red hat install cd, but it refuses to update the boot loader because "no kernal changes have been made." The partitions still exist because i can see that windows didnt swallow up the entire disk. it stayed in its original partition. I d/l a freeware bootloader that would config in windows. it recognized the linux partitions, but couldnt manage to boot them.

I really want to get back to the penguin. Any help is greatly appreciated.

These should help

https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/...mode-boot.html

Chapter 2 of the RH9 reference covers grub
https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/...ual/ref-guide/

do you have a copy of knoppix ?
why not boot windows, use the DOS tools on the linux install disk to make a new boot floppy, boot that, and re-install grub.

windowsXP sucks hard.
when i installed it, my system was as follows

Primary Master = blank ntfs ready for windows install
Primary Slave = fully working linux install

the windowsXP insisted it needed to make a dos partiton on my linux drive to install XP,
after un-plugging linux hard disk, xp was happy to install.

Thanks for the advice.

The dos tools on the red hat disk only have images for installation, not recovery.

When the cd boots you have to type
linux rescue
at the prompt

that was very fast!

i tried that tho. i'm too much of a n00b to help myself from there.

I had the same problem, though with debian and lilo.
I booted with the install-cd, and switched to console. There you can mount your old linux partition (if the installer hasn't done so far) and use chroot /mnt/hda1 - or where ever your old linux is mounted.
Now you have access to all your installed tools, kernel and bootloader config files.
So I could just run lilo to install my old bootloader again, using my custom kernel and bootloader configuration as found on my linux partition.
__
Rud

- Boot from your RedHat CD.
- Type: linux rescue
- Then you will get three choices, choose: Continue ( If Linux fails to mount a partition, it will notify you. )
- At the command line, type: chroot /mnt/sysimage
- Then type: /usr/sbin/grub-install /dev/hda


If you can't manage to get Rescue Mode working, you can try using Tom's RootBoot, but this is no easier.
Download it from:
http://www.toms.net/rb/download.html
Instructions on how to make the floppy disk (you will have to be in DOS, before win98 boots, press F8 and select command line).
http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/Linux/tomsrtbt.htm

Once done, boot from the floppy, login as root (password by default is xxxx).
Do the following:
Since I don't know your partition setup, you will have to change the X with the correct number associated with the root partition.
Take a closer look at the output from fdisk, this will give you more info on your partition setup.

you might also get ahold of a live cd like knoppix and boot from that. it should auto-mount your partitions, but even if it doesn't you can follow the steps mathieu gave.

Tom's root boot is a better solution, as it's only a tiny download. Just do what Mathieu said.

new problem
 

Well, after much formatting and reinstallation, i thought i had it all worked out. I had XP contained and installed first, and space open for Fedora Core to install in. Linux works perfectly. My boot loader is grub. If i select choose to boot XP, i get

nothing further. windows is the first partition on the disk.

please, help me.