Restoring win98 MBR with Knoppix CD

[knophead]

I have (had?!) redhat 9.0 dual booting with win98SE. Tried the allegedly simple "FDISK /MBR" route to clearing out redhat so i could save some hdd space and just use knoppix CD and then ...

on boot i get the normal boot messages, windows boot begins and then i am left with just an "a>" prompt asking me to tell it where command.com is. I duly oblige and of course nothing happens. GRUB does not load so i have nowhere else to go.

I understand that i can use dd to restore the old 98 mbr from /boot/boot.b but wanted to save what is there at the moment by loading knoppix CD and going from there. I have successfully copied boot.d onto a floppy so have some insurance but then i tried

dd if=/mnt/hda1 of=/mnt/floppy/badmbr.bk bs=446 count=1

then i get "/mnt/hda1 is a directory" and nothing happens (I was trying to copy the mbr w/o the partition table to a file called badmrb.bk on my floppy).

Have also tried to go into rh 9.0 rescue mode but cant cd into hda2 (the linux partition) to track down boot.d - if i could I might just copy that straight to the windows partition and see what happens.

Am happy to try alternative approaches but i keep finding 80% solutions which dont quite seem to make it. Would be grateful for any suggestions people might have on this. general approach seems quite clear ie using "dd" but specific implementation under KNoppix is eluding me.

Thanks in advance.

[firebyrd10]

/mnt is a directory, you need to send the file to /dev/hda BUT!

If you do chances are that file will become the new partiton, effectivly deleting your old files, not a good idea.

I would suggest http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/, it has alot of usefull programs.

What you will want off it is Ranish partition manager.

When it boots, go up to master boot record, then hit enter. Press space to cycle through the options and then pick normal (or standard, something to that extent). HIt ESC and make sure that your windows partiton is bootable, (should have a > next to it.) if it isn't, go down to it and hit B.

Then just hit F2, then ESC and reboot (with cd out of drive of course).

[knophead]

thanks for this suggestion. I am actually ok deleting the old red hat partition files because i cleaned everything out first. what i need to do is to make the windows partitions boot properly. if that works then i can delete the old red hat partition, expand my win98 partition and just use my knoppix cd.

[firebyrd10]

thanks for this suggestion. I am actually ok deleting the old red hat partition files because i cleaned everything out first. what i need to do is to make the windows partitions boot properly. if that works then i can delete the old red hat partition, expand my win98 partition and just use my knoppix cd.

Well not only just deleting but sending the file to a partition won't effect the MBR.

[baldyeti]

Make sure it's your windows (hda1?) partition which is (and is the only one) marked bootable/active. This, along with "fdisk /mbr" should restore your windows boot sequence.

[knophead]

hda1 is the windows partition - have checked and all files are visible etc under knoppix. is also only one under fdisk marked as "A".

fdisk /mbr is the thing i did which created this mess (first message up top gives details).

Have since tried a few more things.

1. tried copying boot.d backup (its redhat) to hda1

> knoppix@ttyp1[boot]$ dd if=/dev/hda2/boot/boot.d of=/dev/hda1 bs=446 count=1
> dd: opening `/dev/hda2/boot/boot.d': Not a directory

i hear what the message says but dont understand what to do about it.

2. then i copied the boot.d file to floppy and tried to copy from there.

> knoppix@ttyp1[boot]$ dd if=/mnt/floppy/copyboot of=/mnt/hda1 bs=446 count=1
> dd: opening `/mnt/hda1': Is a directory

similar (possibly opposite?) message and similar lack of understanding on my part(!)

Can anyone explain or suggest ways to get boot.d info back to hda1 so i can once more get win98 running (a sad excuse for an OS to be sure but it has all my data there ... )

Thanks

[baldyeti]

Mmh... was your redhat lilo written to hda (mbr) or hda2 (RH root partition)?
Anyway if all you want to do is restore windows as the primary OS, boot from a win98 floppy, then issue "fdsik/mbr" and "sys c:" and you should be set.

[knophead]

thanks for the new suggestion. Still no good but some error messages which may be helpful.

C:> sys c:
cannot specify default drive

and maybe more worrying on boot up with the system disk it gives me

MODE.COM either corrupted or missing

and it reports errors in my config.sys file at lines 35 and 36 which refer to MODE.COM

lines 35 and 36 (if i have counted right) are as follows:

install=mode.com con cp prepare=((850) ega.cpi)
install=mode.com con cp select=850

Is this indicating that the mode.com file on the system disk is bad

[firebyrd10]

Doesn't look like the poblem is getting windows to boot anymore. Its getting it to boot properly.

[knophead]

small update:

A:> sys c:
invalid function

then still as before:
MODE.COM either corrupted or missing

errors in my config.sys file at lines 35 and 36:

install=mode.com con cp prepare=((850) ega.cpi)
install=mode.com con cp select=850

understand this not knoppix related anymore but if anyone knows the answer can they pls let me know.

Thanks