S
Srinath Avadhanula
Hello,
I just had a rather disastrous afternoon trying to make a dualboot
computer between windows xp and linux (debian). My computer was
initially a windows XP machine. with 3 partitions c:\ d:\ and e:\. XP
was loaded on the c:\ and e:\ drives and I could choose between them
at boot times.
Today I tried the KNOPPIX live-CD. It comes with a CD which boots up a
complete linux distribution (debian). Normally it does not write
anything to the hard-disk. But (maybe foolishly), I tried the tool
knx-hdinstall tool which is supposed to install the distribution on
the hard-disk. When it asked me if I wanted to write to the MBR, I did
say "NO". After that when I rebooted the computer, I got the message
"Invalid Partition Table"
and the computer just sits there waiting for a CTRL-ALT-DEL. I can
however boot onto linux using a linux boot floppy and surprisingly, I
can access all the data on the old c:\, d:\ and e:\ drives (via
/dev/hda1, /dev/hda5 and /dev/hda6 respectively). This is what the
partition table looks like when I boot into linux and run "cfdisk" (a
linux utility):
Partition Table for /dev/hda
---Starting--- ----Ending---- Start Number of
# Flags Head Sect Cyl ID Head Sect Cyl Sector Sectors
-- ----- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- -------- ---------
1 0x80 1 1 0 0x0B 254 63 637 63 10249407
2 0x00 0 1 638 0x0F 254 63 1023 10249470 57352050
3 0x80 254 63 1023 0x83 254 63 1023 67601520 8594775
4 0x00 254 63 1023 0x82 254 63 1023 76196295 498015
5 0x00 1 1 638 0x0C 254 63 1023 63 20482812
6 0x00 254 63 1023 0x07 254 63 1023 63 36869112
In the table above, the my original C:, D: and E: drives are the
first, fifth and sixth (# 1, 5, 6)
I can boot into the recovery console via my windows XP CD and it is
also able to find all the files (although it gives me "access denied"
when I try to edit any file in the D: and E: drives).
Apparently, all the data is usable by both windows recovery console
and linux, but I just cannot get windows XP to start up
I hope I am
not completely hosed and that something can be done... I would hate
having to re-install windows since it would mean that all the programs
will have to be re-installed and the virus patches updated etc.
Thank you,
Srinath
I just had a rather disastrous afternoon trying to make a dualboot
computer between windows xp and linux (debian). My computer was
initially a windows XP machine. with 3 partitions c:\ d:\ and e:\. XP
was loaded on the c:\ and e:\ drives and I could choose between them
at boot times.
Today I tried the KNOPPIX live-CD. It comes with a CD which boots up a
complete linux distribution (debian). Normally it does not write
anything to the hard-disk. But (maybe foolishly), I tried the tool
knx-hdinstall tool which is supposed to install the distribution on
the hard-disk. When it asked me if I wanted to write to the MBR, I did
say "NO". After that when I rebooted the computer, I got the message
"Invalid Partition Table"
and the computer just sits there waiting for a CTRL-ALT-DEL. I can
however boot onto linux using a linux boot floppy and surprisingly, I
can access all the data on the old c:\, d:\ and e:\ drives (via
/dev/hda1, /dev/hda5 and /dev/hda6 respectively). This is what the
partition table looks like when I boot into linux and run "cfdisk" (a
linux utility):
Partition Table for /dev/hda
---Starting--- ----Ending---- Start Number of
# Flags Head Sect Cyl ID Head Sect Cyl Sector Sectors
-- ----- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- -------- ---------
1 0x80 1 1 0 0x0B 254 63 637 63 10249407
2 0x00 0 1 638 0x0F 254 63 1023 10249470 57352050
3 0x80 254 63 1023 0x83 254 63 1023 67601520 8594775
4 0x00 254 63 1023 0x82 254 63 1023 76196295 498015
5 0x00 1 1 638 0x0C 254 63 1023 63 20482812
6 0x00 254 63 1023 0x07 254 63 1023 63 36869112
In the table above, the my original C:, D: and E: drives are the
first, fifth and sixth (# 1, 5, 6)
I can boot into the recovery console via my windows XP CD and it is
also able to find all the files (although it gives me "access denied"
when I try to edit any file in the D: and E: drives).
Apparently, all the data is usable by both windows recovery console
and linux, but I just cannot get windows XP to start up
I hope I amnot completely hosed and that something can be done... I would hate
having to re-install windows since it would mean that all the programs
will have to be re-installed and the virus patches updated etc.
Thank you,
Srinath