Boot Problems -- Linux/Windows

[btsdev]

I've had this problem before but unfortunately I can't remember exactly how I fixed it.

I have two harddrives, the primary with 30 gig to WIN2k and a secondary with 40gig to Red hat 8. A while back I reformatted the first and lost the MBR for my dual boot and now I want to get it back again -- right now it goes right into windows. Unfortunately I lost my red hat 8 boot disk :|. I want to get LiLo up and running I guess. Now i'm not sure, if getting a red hat 8 boot disk would fix it even, whether or not it's true that RH8 boot disks are pretty hardware-specific, as I've heard in the past; so I wouldn't be able to download one.

Anyhow, I just need to get a dual boot setup working again Thanks if you have any ideas.

 

[xcript]

You could boot from a gentoo/debian disc (tomsrtbt boot floppy also works nicely), mount your root linux partition, chroot to it, and then simply run /sbin/lilo.

Atleast I'm pretty sure this will work. I don't use LILO.

 

[btsdev]

:frown: I don't have a gentoo/debian disc :|

I do have the three RH cds that I purchased... Can I boot off of that? And reformatting either drive is not an option.

 

[cleverhandle]

Do the Red Hat 8 CD's have a rescue function? Something like entering, say, "rescue /dev/hdc2" or whatever at the boot prompt? That would be the first thing I'd check. Otherwise I guess you'd need to do something like boot to a rescue shell, mount the Red Hat partition, chroot to it, and run LILO from there.

 

[xcript]

Originally posted by: btsdev
:frown: I don't have a gentoo/debian disc :|

I do have the three RH cds that I purchased... Can I boot off of that? And reformatting either drive is not an option.

Lol. I don't think you're going to need to be reformatting anything guy.

Got a floppy drive? If so, this works pretty nicely. I always keep one handy.

Otherwise, as cleverhandle says, you can see if there's a rescue function on the rh boot cd.

 

[btsdev]

Bah. Thanks a lot for the tips but I can't try anything right now. My CPU fan is dying and making really loud noises and the lack of cooling is causing the CPU to crawl -- I need to fix this first :\

I'll reply when I get to try to fix my dual boot issue.

 

[btsdev]

thanks for the help but i've decided i'm going to reformat and try a new distro anyway; i wasn't entirely happy with rh