StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I thought I'd make a new thread about this, as it does not have enough in common with my previous thread about Linux partitioning to go in there.

In any case, my Linux installation is working quite well now. The problem is that the previous WinXP one is not, and I bloody well need that half of the system in very short order. When I installed Mandrake Linux, I specified Windows as the default boot system in the bootloader, which is supposed to be in the MBR. However, when I try to boot WinXP, all that happens is a black screen with the cursor blinking in the upper left corner and no activity whatsoever on the hard drive.

I suspect the problem might have something to do with my deletion of the last Windows partition (to get some more needed space) when I installed Mandrake. I guess it could have messed up with the partitioning tables or something, but afaik this is not something that should be happening. Or is it that because I had to specify primary and extended partition originally when installing windows and now the extended partition having been modified by other software (the Linux partitioning tool) , the Windows bootup procedures no longer recognize the system?

If anyone has any useful advice for me, it would be greatly appreciated. Will tampering with the bootloader and/or partition tables with the tools in Mandrake help, or am I looking at a need to make a recovery boot for Linux, reinstalling XP and then restoring the Linux bootloader?

It's a real bitch especially since I need to use the XP part of my system to do some Windows specific school assignments that simply can't be done on Linux. Data recovery is no problem, but all the other hassle coupled with a lot of deadlines is.

Edi

reinstall WinXP onto a new parition. When you deleted the old parition, you effectively erased all the data on that parition, meaning that you don't have WinXP on your disk anymore.

I ran into a similar problem when I installed a second hard drive and tried to convert them from two independant drives to RAID-0. I had to delete the old partion (which wiped the data on my first HD) and create a new one that spanned both drives, then install WinXP into the new parition.

I think you accidentaly nuked NTLDR. which means you need to reinstall windows.

CRAP! Well, I'll have to see what happens, but this means that I'm screwed as far as those school assignments go...

Edi

Edi wrote:CRAP! Well, I'll have to see what happens, but this means that I'm screwed as far as those school assignments go...

Edi

No backups?

Sharp-kun wrote:

Edi wrote:CRAP! Well, I'll have to see what happens, but this means that I'm screwed as far as those school assignments go...

Edi

No backups?

Not that. All of my data is complety intact, I can access it through the Linux installation, but most of those assignments are MS software specific, and the deadlines are this week. Then there is the problem of needing to move several gigabytes of data off the WinXP partitions before I can reinstall that, or I risk losing everything because I'm not at all sure how the Windows installation would react to the outside modification of the partition scheme.

So I'm basically looking at buying a new hard drive, taking the current one out, then installing WinXP on that and mounting the old one as secondary and then taking the data from there. If it can recognize the partitions, that is. If not, then I'll have the great joy of cycling it all through my Linux machine, which has shit for hard drive space (see the other thread). Whee!

FUCK!

(Well, things could be worse, at least it can be revocered...)

Edi

Problem solved, and goddamn it was a bitch to do. See the rant here.

The only remaining problem is that now I don't have multiboot until I do some more fooling around with Linux, but now the two operating systems will be on separate hard drives and I can just set them up as separate systems so I only need to switch boot order from BIOS to choose whichever one I want. But I'm not doing anything toward that for a few days.

Edi