Thread: Linux / Windows

Im having a problem with windows and linux. I reinstalled Mandrake Linux, and at the boot screen it didnt give me an option for my windows partition, C drive. I tried to mount it, but now it doesnt recognize it, although I accessed C, from a floppy boot disk. I went to an option, and I wanted to change its mount point, but it only has mount points such as /var, or /boot ,but no /mnt/win, so It doesnt know its a windows partition. What can I do to fix this.

Thanks

To get windows to show up on the boot screen you would have to edit /etc/lilo.conf (if you are using lilo bootloader) I can't remember exactly what the command is..... I don't have my lilo.conf file on me at the moment. You should be able to go to the Mandrake Control Center and edit your boot options there.

As for the mounting the partition you would change that in /etc/fstab . First make sure you have created a folder /mnt/win and then add something like this line to /etc/fstab (assuming your windows partition is at the first partition on your hard drive)

/dev/hda1 /mnt/win vfat users 0 0

--double post--

Ok, I think I got it. Add this to the end of /etc/lilo.conf and then run lilo

Code:

other=/dev/hda1
	label=win

I already tried that, doing it trough control center, and when I go to windows, it says Loading windows, and then prints out LI, and just stalls there.

What does you /etc/lilo.conf file look like?

Well this is what it looks like, also, I wanted to try to change the mount point of the C drive, but it doesnt have mnt/win

Did you try adding

/dev/hda1 /mnt/win vfat users 0 0

to /etc/fstab ?

I added that line, and then used KdiskFree, and tried to mount the drive, but it says it doesnt exist, and has a size of 0.

Under Control Center, it has mnt/win, under my C drive, but I rebooted the computer, and when it tried to load windows, it gave me the normal message.

Loading Windows.....

LI


Any other suggestiions?

Thanks

The exact error message, when I try to mount the dev/hda1 is
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda1, or too many mounted file systems

Thanks, but the funny thing is, it is there, since I can get to my files on the C drive with a windows boot disk.

Thanks again

If it hangs on LI (Each letter corresponds to a stage), then this usually this means that you have a mismatch in the way that LILO and the BIOS are trying to access specific parts of a drive. One may be using CHS (cylinder, head, sector) co-ordinates while the other might be expecting LBA (linear block address) offsets. So, try adding the "linear" directive to the global section of your /etc/lilo.conf (and re-running the /sbin/lilo command to build and install a new boot loader from that conf file, of course).

Alternatively, try changing your PCs CMOS Setup options. Look for an option like "LBA" or "UDMA" mode and disable it. Note that this may not work with newer large capacity drives. You might want to try this first.

Also if you have a windows boot disk, you can use that to do a
>fdisk /mbr
then windows will boot just fine, then you can come back with your linux boot disk and fix things up.