Stuck in recovery mode HP/Compaq

[perhagge]

Computer:
Hp/Compaq about 1,5 years old
P4 3,2 Ghz
and so on

HD 250 GB divided into 2 partions D: Recovery by Compaq and C: Win XP, D normally hidden D: is Fat32 and C: is NTFS

Planned to install Linux(Debian), Installed Partion magic to prepare the HD. was thinking to use PM boot manager, installed it and was told that I had 2 win XP installations. Asumed that one of them were the recovery partion and the other the standard. Restarted and selected the standard WinXP and everything worked fine. Then later on another person in the house stared the computer but now in the other winXP and the compaq recovery is then started. In the recovery you have some questiona about your sure you want to continue etc. and ther we still are. Tried to restart but it directly jumps to recovery.

Is there any way to get it to start from the c: like usally ?
Don't want to go all the way with recovery and install everything again (programs).

I can access both partions from knoppix when booting from the dvd drive. Can I edit some file to correct the startup ?

I also have a DVD burner so the last option, I quess is to try and burn the most value files I have with the burner program in knoppix. Hope Idon't have to do that.

/Pär

[mr_ed]

I like Partition Magic, but I don't like their boot manager. (Is it still called Boot Magic?) I think it destroyed Windows 98 on one of my computers.

My grandfather came from Sweden, and he married a Swedish girl here in America. But he wouldn't let anyone speak Swedish in the house, so now nobody in the family knows any Swedish. Can you teach me some bad language to use when I'm mad at my computers?

I think you're right about what happened. The HP/Compaq recovery partition seems like a good idea until it causes problems. And now Boot Magic made your computer think that it has two XPs - one of them on an NTFS partition, and real - the other on a FAT32 partition, and really just WinHell that you can't escape.

It sounds like making changes to the drive's Master Boot Record would fix your problem. Or maybe even just changing the partition table that's in the MBR - make the D: partition hidden again so nothing tries to boot into it.

Your Partition Magic CD has recovery tools - maybe one of those would help? (Can that CD can be booted? I don't have mine to check.) Or you can boot the Knoppix CD and use the tools that are on it.

Usually you want to fix things by making a small change instead of a big one. So first I would use some tool to look at the drive's partition table. If you do that in Linux, you have to be root. Knoppix likes you to use sudo to run one command at a time, but when you're doing a bunch of things that require root privilege, it makes more sense to type $ su just the one time.

Then use the list option with fdisk to see the partition table: # fdisk -l /dev/hda - partition /dev/hda1 is the C: drive, and partition /dev/hda2 is the D: drive. The second column probably has a * for one of them (or maybe both), meaning that the partition is "bootable" (to fdisk) or "active" to Windows.

If the * is on the line for /dev/hda2, you may be lucky and only need to change it to /dev/hda1. To do that you run fdisk in interactive mode: # fdisk /dev/hda.

If your computer speaks English these are the four most important commands:

• - m - menu of commands;
  - p - print partition table (to screen);
  - q - quit and don't save changes;
  - w - write changes and quit.

You can quit at any time with q, and your mistakes are erased. The only way to change the actual partition table is to type w, and then it returns you to the Knoppix command line.

The command a turns a "bootable" flag on or off. Type a, tell it which partition to change, type p to see if it did what you expected. When you're satisfied with the changes, type w to write the new partition table, and reboot.

The full moon is coming, so this may not solve your problem. (It's better to blame your troubles on something you can't break with a rock. ) In that case, I think you should install a fresh bootloader to replace Boot Magic. (The MBR holds only two things: a bootloader - or part of one - and the primary partition table.)

Here are some options:

• 1 - install Knoppix, which installs LILO;
  2 - use the Knoppix CD to install GrUB;
  3 - use another tool to re-install the XP bootloader (or something else).

Choice 1 is the worst. You want to use Partition Magic to resize Windows partitions if you can because PM will move your data out of the way before it makes the partition smaller. And LILO has to have a Linux partition already on the hard drive before it can be installed.

Choice 2 will work fine if you don't want to keep the XP bootloader - GrUB will probably still show your FAT32 partition as a choice at boot time, but you can ignore that and later fix the GrUB configuration file so it doesn't even show the recovery partition.

Choice 3 might work too. The XP bootloader can boot non-Windows operating systems. Microsoft even has a web page that tells you how! Maybe your XP CD can re-install the bootloader for you (but I doubt it).

You can also use a search engine like Google to look for tools that might help. Start by looking at this page: www.startdisk.com/Web1/ubd/ubd.htm.

Oh, I almost forgot. Norton ... that is, Symantec ... now owns Partition Magic, but some of the utitilies are available for free download. I know you can edit the partition table with ptedit32, but I'm not sure what the others are capable of. (And I can't check until I reboot this computer back into XP....) These tools are available here: ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis.../pq/utilities/.

If you decide to try choice 2 and want some help, let us know!

-- Ed

[perhagge]

Thanks for the tips mr_ed. I will try to boot of the pm disc first. otherwise i will try fdisk and change active partion. I also tried that in Qtparted included in knoppix 3.7. But maybe I was not doing it as root and I'm not sure if it really changed.

I'm at work now and can't check the computer back home but I think that hda1 is D: and hda2 is c:, when I looked at the disk in pm the small partion (C was first on the HD.

Probelm with choice 3 is Idon't have an clean, onlyWinXp cd it is all on the recovery disc.

I hope I will be able to work on this in the weekend, and will get back with the result and/or ask for more help, hopfully on the home computer!!

/Pär

[perhagge]

Oh forgot,
some bad word in swedish

Start with some simple

Helvete = Hell
Far åt helvete = go to hell
Jävlar = devils (hard to translate) maybe little harder then "shit"
Din jävel = direct translation "you are a devil" could be both bad and good if some one call you that, depends on situation
Dator jävel = computer devil, if youre mad at the computer "f***ing computer"
Far åt helevete, dator jävel = you might say this when youre close to throw the computer out the window.

Skit stövel = Bastard (Boot ful of shit)

[OErjan]

you forgot a few bad ones. like;
burkjävel=devilish tincan can of a computer
inte alla getter hemma=you are a few goats short of a herd, meaning retard, not brighetest kid in town, weak as a newborn and more muscle than brain...
noll-åtta (08 ) = a somewhat harsh way of saying cityslicker i gues. 08 is the areacode for the capital...
this is used to indicate someone that would make the most anorectic, uninteligent and shalow mayfly celebrity (semi famous for a few days) look like Davy crocket, superman, James Bond, Albert Einsten and a few others combined...

[mr_ed]

I hope you guys don't get in trouble for bad words in public! I was joking, mostly.

See this new message, too: http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtop...?p=82510#82510, if you can get to the recovery console.

-- Ed

[perhagge]

I changed the active partion to hda2 but it still starts up in recovery mode. To be on the safe side I have stared to burn some of the important files to dvd+r. However I think I have to make some choice now how to go on and I think I give choice 2 a chance. So how to install Grub ?

I have knoppix 3.7 but I think I will download the latest iso today. The original plan is to install Debian, will grub work with that later also ?

After reading more about Knoppix I also consider installing Knoppix instead as I understand it is based on Debian. According to one of the how to's knoppix must be installed in the first partion on the hd, but there I now have the fat32 recovery, will it not be possible to install knoppix on another partion. It would be like:

1. Fat32 - recovery
2. Ntfs - Win Xp
3. Linux

[perhagge]

Fixed it !!!!!!!!!

Found that there are one boot.ini in each partion. Changed the one in recovery partion to the same as WinXp parition and changed the hda2 to active. Don't know if boot magic is still active? started it up once now and don't dare to shut it down yet

Okey, probably back at square 1 again.

Think I will install Linux without using boot magic. Considering installing Knoppix

Thanks fo the help