[LBo] Help fixing Win2k bootloader

[John Fielding]

> Okay, I need some help here.  I recently installed Debian to some spare
> space on my main drive.  It made it's own partitions, and now the Win2k
> bootloader can't find windows.  Windows is still on the same partition,
> and I have made no changes in boot.ini.
>
> On my main drive, this is the partition info from fdisk:
>
> ===
>
> Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
> 240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 5169 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes
>
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/hda1              69        3789    28130760    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
> /dev/hda2   *        3790        5169    10432800   83  Linux
> /dev/hda4               1          68      514048+   6  FAT16
> /dev/hda5              69        3725    27646888+   7  HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/hda6            3726        3789      483808+  82  Linux swap /
> Solaris

>
><snip>
>
> Win2k has always been /dev/hda5 in Linux, and has always been referred
> to as partition(2).  Before, it was like this:
>
> /dev/hda4 FAT16 XOSL partition
> /dev/hda5 Win2k Partition
> /dev/hda6 Knoppix
>
> Knoppix and Win2k were in an extended partition or something... That has
> always confused me.
>
> Windows hasn't changed partitions or anything... so what do I need to do
> to make it boot again?  Am I fubar'd here?  Argh.
>

It looks like the drive has been repartitioned a bit since /dev/hda4 is
the primary partition that would normally be /dev/hda1.  Yes, The
Windows partition and current swap are logical partitions on the
extended /dev/hda1.  One change that has happened is that your Linux
partition is now ahead of the Windows partitions.  But I don't think
that is a problem.  It sounds like what you are saying is that you get
the bootloader for Windows, but the ntldr is missing or not found.  That
happened to me and the reason is here:
http://linuxbasics.org/tutorials/during/lose_windows_boot

There are some ideas for fixing it on that page, but I don't think I
ever put up the thing that ended up fixing it for me.  I didn't have the
install disk for Win2K; so I couldn't use that to fix the mbr.  I used a
Windows XP disk and did it with that.  I think the command is 'fixmbr'.
 That will wipe out your Linux Grub boot loader; so you need to first
make sure you have a way to boot Linux like a rescue disk or a boot
disk.  Try booting into Debian with it to make sure it works before you
fixmbr.  That will find the ntldr for you and then when you go back into
Debian and run 'install-grub /dev/hda' it will now have the geometry
straight.

If the Debian you installed does not have kernel 2.6, then forget all of
this, because that is an important part of the reason for the error.
But in my case, this happened. Read the page.  It is a rather complex
issue and seldom happens, but if you have the right machine with the
BIOS set as stated, along with the 2.6 kernel and parted for your
partitioner, you can get this geometry shift in the BIOS that will make
Windows not know where the ntldr is.

Sam, let us know more on this, OK.  It's a long time since I've seen
this.  I wonder what version of Debian is being used and how the
partitioning was done.  As usual, it will probably be something much
simpler.

Sam:

If you want to restore the Win2k boot loader, try Fisk /mbr using any
Windows boot able media.

Personally, I would follow the prior suggestions to edit the Grub menu 1st
file to allow Grub to be the boot loader for both Windows and Linux and
Solaris
-- 
John