Windows and The MBR

[shuiend]

my winblows 2k is being a bitch and i am planning on reinstalling it. it is on the hda1 partion and i was wondering if it would be possible to reinstall just that then use a linux boot disk to boot into linux and restore lilo to the MBR. i really don't want to reformat my whole drive just b/c winblows sucks and i hope this is possible

[foobar]

The Win2k installation (the files) won't overwrite
your MBR, but the bloody windows install will.
It's a quite egocentrical install, wich will simply overwrite your MBR and pretend like you only have windoze.  :mad:  M$ basterds

Get two floppies: One wich you will use to make a linux-bootdisk from, and on the other you must put your current /etc/lilo.conf .
(You can put your /etc/lilo.conf on an other partition that linux can read, too !)

Erase the damn windoze partition, reboot with the windoze CD, install the crappy OS and reboot again.

Put the first floppy into your floppy drive and boot linux from it.

Get the lilo.conf from your floppy or different partition and put it in /etc .

cp /mnt/floppy/lilo.conf /etc

Now run /sbin/lilo .
You should see something like this:

Added Linux *
Added windoze
added foo
added bar

And so on.

That's all. Just don't forget the linux-bootdisk  

[ July 10, 2002: Message edited by: -=f00bar=- ]

[shuiend]

ok thanks
i shall try that later today

[foobar]

Sorry to bother again jest, but i just updated my post !

It's a little clarified now   :rolleyes:

[Calum]

it can be a bit simpler than that,

when you installed linux, you may have made a startup disk already, excellent! if not, you can make one, as already stated.

Now, as to the lilo.conf, if you are not shifting your partitions around, and if you have not changed your lilo.conf since you installed lilo (assuming you installed it using a graphical install, a la red hat, mandrake and all the other biggies) then all you need to do is reinstall windows, use your linux startup floppy to boot into linux, as root, then run:"lilo" (you may need to type in the full path, eg "/sbin/lilo")
which will write a master boot record based on the info in your lilo.conf

Sorry to basically rephrase what foobar already said, but i just wanted to say that this process seemed confusing to me as a newbie when it's actually incredibly easy.

[foobar]

Yeah, you're right calum,
but if he had both windows and linux on the same partition,
this would have worked too.
I don't know jester's partition configs, so i took
the the most lengthy, but always-working approach.

If you've got a separate linux partition, please use calums approach !!!

BTW: I'm ever so happy. I'm typing this under lynx, and not any more under bloody windoze 95 !!!
 :cool:  

[shuiend]

i am on my dads comp right now. 2k is being a bitch and keeps freezing at the screen where it dectects mouse and keyboard and shit. it is pissing me off. i am thinking of totally reformatting but i rather not. if that come then thank you for the info any ways