[ILUG] Mandrake messed up XP

[Denis Hennessy]

You didn't mention whether you tried to install mandrake on a separate 
partition to the xp install or not. It's important because if the 
windows partition is intact, then the only problem is getting it to boot 
again. If you've inadvertantly replaced it, then you're probably looking 
at a full reinstall....

Anyways, assuming the data is still there and uncorrupted, there are two 
options: get windows to repair the boot sequence or install a linux boot 
loader and get it to load windows.

Option 1: Repair windows. Actually, I'm not that familiar with this 
route. However, I'd try booting with the XP cd and look for a 'repair' 
option. Maybe someone else can advise?

Option 2: Boot a linux rescue cd. Again, I'm not familiar with Mandrake 
- try booting the CD and look for a rescue option. Alternatively, 
download and burn a rescue CD (e.g. 
http://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/2/i386/iso/FC2-i386-rescuecd.iso 
).

With the rescue CD, there are two things you need to do:
1. Verify that the partitions are OK
2. Install a boot loader (like grub)

To check the partition table, do the following (assuming you have one 
hard disk) :

# fdisk -l /dev/hda

You should see output like this:

[root at lemming root]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7752 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1         948     7166848+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/hda2             949         962      105840   83  Linux
/dev/hda3             963        7510    49502880   83  Linux
/dev/hda4            7511        7752     1829520    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5            7511        7752     1829488+  82  Linux swap
[root at lemming root]#

What you're looking for is to identify the separate Linux and FAT32 
partitions. You could also try mounting the windows partitions to see if 
the data looks Ok.

If that worked, then the easiest way forward is to reinstall linux and 
carefully pick the partitions that are not used by windows. Tell it to 
install the boot loader on /dev/hda. That should get you to a working 
linux system. Then edit /etc/grub.conf and add an entry looking like this:

title DOS
        rootnoverify (hd0,0)
        chainloader +1

The ',0' after 'hd0' refers to the partition that is your 'C' drive in 
windows.

Hope that helps. If you're still confused, try to post the exact steps 
you tried and what the errors were.

/dh

Colin wrote:

>Hi,
>I tried to install Mandrake on my Dad's XP machine, but it wouldnt, but now I cant boot into XP anymore and my dads going AWOL. How do I get XP to boot again (i know this is a linux group but i need help)It just sits there after it checks the CD drive for a cd.
>
>Thanks
>  
>