[Techtalk] Flash BIOS/Boot Problem

[Conor Daly]

On Sun, Aug 19, 2001 at 10:56:11AM -0400 or so it is rumoured hereabouts, 
Jude Lucien thought:
> Hello All.
> 
> I'm pretty much a newbie to this list, lurked for a while and answered a post 
> but unfortunately I now need help!
> 
> I run a dual boot win98(hda) and Mandrake 7.2(hdc) system.  GRUB is the boot 
> manager.
> 
> I made the unwise decision the other day to upgrade the BIOS on my machine - 
> now Win98 won't boot.  GRUB still works fine, it boots into Linux just fine, 
> but when I try to boot into Windows it says it can't find command.com.
> 
> I'm posting to this list because even though my problem is with Win, I don't 
> think win people are familiar with systems with boot managers.
> 
> I've tried booting with a floppy and doing a sys a: c: but the stupid thing 
> says c: is an invalid media.
> 
> Can I save my win disk?  (I like to play Premier League Manager!)

In linux as root do a "fdisk -l /dev/hda" and post the output.  

When you boot with a floppy, can you do a "dir c:"?  

Have you got a linux boot floppy?  If not, make one thus:

edit /etc/lilo.conf and change the "boot=" line to read

boot=/dev/fd0

remove the "other=dos" section (or whatever it's called)

Since you use grub instead, you might need to create a lilo.conf from
scratch.  It should look something like:

############################## /etc/lilo.conf ##########################
boot=/dev/fd0
linear
prompt
timeout=50
map=/boot/map

image=/boot/vmlinuz  # or whatever is the name of your kernel
   label=linux
   root=/dev/hda2  #whatever is your root partition
   read-only
########################### end ################################

   
insert a fresh floppy and do "lilo -v" to install it.  Boot from that just
to be sure. 

Once that's working, boot from your dos floppy and do a "fdisk /MBR"
followed by a reboot.  That may be enough to get your Win partition back.
Of course, you won't be able to boot linux then (that's what the boot
floppy is for).  Boot from that and re run the grub installer (I've never
used it so don't ask me how) to install a "proper" MBR.

That's my best shot.

Conor
-- 
Conor Daly <conor.daly at oceanfree.net>

Domestic Sysadmin :-)
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