On Sun, 4 Jun 2000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> this is my first post to this list. I need help, and hope to provide help to others
>in due time.
>
> I just installed Red HAt Linux 6.2 on My PC running Win98 SE. I have 3 hard disks
>total. My First hard disk, and its 2 partitions were not touched (I don't think) by
>linux. I tried installing linux on my second drive, but could not, because the only
>available space was in a cylander above 1280, hence too high for the '/boot'
>directory. Sooo... Iadded another (the third hard drive mentioned above) to the
>system from an old computer I had Lying around. My first 2 drives are Quantum
>Fireballs (4 gig, and 16.5 gig respectively), and this third drive is a Western
>Digital Caviar 31600 1.5 GB.
>
> I created the following partitions using fdisk on the western digital drive:
>
> one 16MB swap partition
> one 16MB /boot partition
> and the rest was for /usr I think, but on a 4 gig partition on
>the fireball slave I added the root partition.
>
> After installation I created a boot disk, removed the disk, and hit 'enter'
>
> After the bios loaded, the digits '07 07 07' were continually running across the
>screen (infinitely looping). When I tried to run windows from a windows boot disk I
>got an error saying something was missing and the OS couldn't load.
>
> I can start Linux from a boot disk and get gnome to start by typing 'startx' at the
>command line.
>
> Can someone help me so that I can get back to windows? Any advice is appreciated,
>but I am a totlal linux newbie and can use instructions as detailed as possible.
>
> By the way, the error I get when loading windows is:
>
> "VFAT DEVICE INITILIZATION FAILED
>
> A device or resource required by vfat is not present or is unavailable. Vfat cannot
>continue loading. system halted."
>
>
> more info on this error at:
> http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q139/0/63.asp
>
> but I can't even get to safe mode in windows!!!
>
> Thank you so much in advance.
>
> Markeyd
> http://www.markdonline.com/
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> Get free personalized email at http://www.iname.com
>
I can think of two ways to get Windows back. Boot Linux from your boot
disk, and run lilo -u (This will pub back the origional boot sectory for
Windows). Another way that may work, is too boot from a Windows boot
disk, and run fdisk /mbr (This should re-write the Windows boot loader).
Now, as for your LILO boot problem, I am not sure exactly what the problem
is. It would help to see your /etc/lilo.conf file, and to know more about
the system you are running. Depending on your BIOS, you may not be able
to use LILO with /boot on the third hard drive. You can still run Linux,
but you may have to use Loadlin or a boot floppy to start it.
Hopefully, someone with more experence using LILO to boot from a third IDE
drive will respond with more info! But at least this should get you going
for now.
Mikkel
--
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
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