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failed boot, get

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tedjones

Vendor
Dec 26, 1999
1
US
installed rh on nt machine linux won't boot past LI and can't get nt to boot either what can i do to get nt back <br>

i have tried all of my emergency disks but stuck on LI ?<br>

could anyone help?
 
I don't know why your emergency disk are failing unless you just copied you existing files onto the floppy and they were corrupted.<br>
<br>
The LI message means the first stage loader wasn't able to load the second stage loader. This usually means boot.b or the kernel has been moved without rerunning lilo.<br>
<br>
The boot loader only knows the location of the files on the harddrive. Rewritting the file or copying a new version into the directory is not enough, you must run lilo each time you move any of these files.<br>
<br>
Of course you really want to know how to recover the system. First NT. You have probably got some garbage in the Master Boot Record. Try booting to a MSDOS floppy and run FORMAT /MBR. That should recover the MBR.<br>
<br>
Next Linux. Boot from the CDROM that came with your distro. It should have an option for starting an installed system. Choose that option to start your system.<br>
<br>
You will have to setup lilo again. <br>
<br>
Hope this helps. <p>Michael Regan<br><a href=mailto:mregan@bccs-ca.com>mregan@bccs-ca.com</a><br><a href= Cat Computer Systems</a><br>Black Cat Computer Systems build Linux servers and work<br>
stations for the small office. Our systems feature the AMD<br>
line of processors. They are an excellent balance of price,<br>
performance and reliability.<br>
 
Some times the old grey matter gets a little slow.<br>
<br>
If you are booting from a floppy you shouldn't be seeing the LILO message. Did you forget to set your BIOS to look at the floppy drive first? <p>Michael Regan<br><a href=mailto:mregan@bccs-ca.com>mregan@bccs-ca.com</a><br><a href= Cat Computer Systems</a><br>Black Cat Computer Systems build Linux servers and work<br>
stations for the small office. Our systems feature the AMD<br>
line of processors. They are an excellent balance of price,<br>
performance and reliability.<br>
 
Looks like goofed on the command for fixing the MBR. It should be FDISK /MBR. <p>Michael Regan<br><a href=mailto:mregan@bccs-ca.com>mregan@bccs-ca.com</a><br><a href= Cat Computer Systems</a><br>Black Cat Computer Systems build Linux servers and work<br>
stations for the small office. Our systems feature the AMD<br>
line of processors. They are an excellent balance of price,<br>
performance and reliability.<br>
 
I think I know what your problem <i>most likely</i> is; if you have a larger HDD (&gt;=2GB) then you'll need to install LILO to a bootable partition of your HDD that is &lt;9692cyl in size; otherwise you'll keep getting a stuck computer after the &quot;LI&quot; portion of the &quot;LILO&quot; message; this is because the current LILO bootloader is <i>NOT</i> fully compatible with HDDs that are &gt;9692cyl in size.<br>
<br>
Hope this helps <p>-Robherc<br><a href=mailto:robherc@netzero.net>robherc@netzero.net</a><br><a href= > </a><br>*nix installation & program collector/reseller. Contact me if you think you've got one that I don't :)
 
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