Lilo x WXPSP2 x MBR

[Marcus Ramos]

Hi there ...

I installed V 3.8 to a slave HD (one single partition + swap) and choose to place lilo at this HD MBR. BIOS allows me to choose boot order. Master HD have 3 partitions and one of them have WXP there. Others are NTFS and FAT32.

Well, all is up and running ok, I can boot both systems.

BUT: when on XP, the existing NTFS and FAT32 partitions - that used to be drives D and E - are not accesible by XP. Only drive C. I mean, On master there is 3 partitions:

HDA:
- Drive C, 9GBytes NTFS where XP is
- Drive D, 9Gbytes NTFS data storage
- Drive E, 18GBytes FAT32 data storage

The slave with Knoppix on it ...

HDB
- Knoppix, 4.9GB
- Linux Swapp, 200MB

XP drive letter assignment has gone, at least for my old D and E drives. Probabily lilo is pulling XP leg, hiding this info. HDA properties under XP shows drive C info with an assigned letter (C) and only shows the remaining partitions capacityes / file system types but don`t gave them letters.

Is there any way to restore editing lilo.conf manually? Or shoud I run fixmbr from XP CD?

BTW, removing slave HD (HDB, where Knoppix is) makes HDA uselless (a series of 01 01 01 01 numbers all around the screen, as expected). Seems that some info on HDA MBR was written ... and I still have acess to this missing partitions but only under Knoppix.

[sd5867]

XP drive letter assignment has gone, at least for my old D and E drives. Probabily lilo is pulling XP leg, hiding this info. HDA properties under XP shows drive C info with an assigned letter (C) and only shows the remaining partitions capacityes / file system types but don`t gave them letters.

2 things you can try here, in XP. I don't believe that lilo can mess up drive letter assignments in XP, but numerous other things can.

1. Start -> Run -> diskmgmt.msc
From here, by right clicking you should be able to assign/change drive letters.
If this by chance doesn't work procede to step 2

2. Start -> Run -> regedit32
Make a backup of your registry. (This is just a precaution, you don't do anything in XP w/o making a backup)
Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/MountedDevices
Delete the \DosDevices\D: through however many you have.
Close regedit32
Reboot the machine.
In deleting those registry keys, it forces XP to redetect partitions and assign them drive letters. Drive letters are assigned and registered to certain hardware, so if you have conflicting drive letters, they can often not get assigned.

Is there any way to restore editing lilo.conf manually? Or shoud I run fixmbr from XP CD?

You can edit lilo.conf manually by booting from your knoppix cd, just remember to run lilo afterwards.
Fixmbr will just restore your mbr to ntloader to get windows booting properly again.

BTW, removing slave HD (HDB, where Knoppix is) makes HDA uselless (a series of 01 01 01 01 numbers all around the screen, as expected). Seems that some info on HDA MBR was written ... and I still have acess to this missing partitions but only under Knoppix.

This seems to be normal, I am pretty sure it is a bug, knoppix-installer writing to hda even though you tell it to write to hdb.
The ones and zeros are lilo trying to call lilo.conf from hdb. You can easily restore the mbr of hda by using fixmbr as stated above.

Hope this helps some.

SD

[Marcus Ramos]

Hi ...

1. Start -> Run -> diskmgmt.msc
From here, by right clicking you should be able to assign/change drive letters.
If this by chance doesn't work procede to step 2

Sorry. diskmgmnt see all partitions, show them as healthy and says that all of them are primary. I guess XP C drive is primary and the remaining should be logical. On this way the only task diskmgmt allows me is "delete" such partitions. The only one that have more options (change letters, etc) is the labeled as C drive. Take a look at http://py.qsl.br/partinfo.gif .

2. Start -> Run -> regedit32
Make a backup of your registry. (This is just a precaution, you don't do anything in XP w/o making a backup)
Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/MountedDevices
Delete the \DosDevices\D: through however many you have.
Close regedit32
Reboot the machine.

Nop. Deleted all letter assignemnts but A, C and E (E=CD ROM), rebooted but still the same.

You can edit lilo.conf manually by booting from your knoppix cd, just remember to run lilo afterwards.
Fixmbr will just restore your mbr to ntloader to get windows booting properly again.

Yes, I can do it from CD or from HD where Knoppix is. The instalation run perfect. May be - if I had installed without the XP drive connected - and later edited lilo.conf manually or simply choose at the bios from which device I want to boot this things will not hapenned.

I did a intalation of a Knoppix like distribuition (Kalango, I guess a customized Knoppix CD) some time ago but at this time I set XP drive as the slave HD and then proceed to Knoopix/Kalango install at the Master HD. Doing this I guess lilo makes all changes to MBR only at Master and left slave as is, "thinking" it was master due to some instruction at lilo.conf.

Seems that fixmbr is the way to go. I´ll then restore MBR (lilo will be killed at master). Will then disconect Master and re-install from CD on slave. But before I´ll try to write lilo on slave (where Knoppix is) to see if I can keep actual Knppix instalation as is.

Thanks for the sugestions :o)

Regards
Marcus Ramos
PY3CRX/PY2PLL
http://py.qsl.br

[Marcus Ramos]

Well, I guess I figured what messed up my drives:

- HDA (Master) have XP-SP2 installed, 3 partitions:

- 9GB With XP, NTFS
- 9GB data storage, FAT32
- 19GB data storage NTFS

- HDB (Slave) where I installed Knoppix from CD

At that time, HDA was connected to the HD controller so Knopix setup find it.

Durying install, LILO config undesrtood (or I understood ... this is better :o) that LILO will install itself at HDB MBR. Bios should be altered to boot from HDB.

BUT LILO installed itself on HDA (master) leaving config info on HDB.

HDA has its MBR altered. So following the sugestions from our forum pal I worked around XP tools (regedit / diskmgmnt) trying to solve the problem. No way. WIN-XP do not boot anymore without HDB installd (lilo was there on HDA).

XP problem: I brough XP-with SP1 ... upgraded via web to SP2. Surprize!!!! You can not install Recovery Console because Win considers that CD have an older version than the installed on HD.

Boot from XP CD and press R to start recovery console. Then XP install did no care abt the existing version. I used fixmbr function and voilà ... worked. XP now boot normally.

Another BUT: the remaining HDA partitions has gone anyway. I mean, they´re there but hidden or something like that (take a look at http://py.qsl.br/partinfo.gif).

Since I killed LILO at HDA I needed to re-install Knoppix on HDB.

This time I disconected HDA from the hw controller. Smooth instalation, LILO at this time has only Linux options, no other operational system.

Reconnecting HDA and rebooting via HDB (lilo there now), I started Knoppix and as a different user run QTParted.

Now there was all information about XP drive (HDA), all partitions. There´s a 9GB NTFS active one, the FAT32 9GB - hidden - and the NTFS 19GB, hidden too. As QTParted doesn´t handle NTFS, I was able only to unhide the FAT32.

Bingo! XP now sees this missing partition, assigned a letter etc etc.

Everything is - almost - perfect now.

Any idea about un-hiding the NTFS partition? Using another linux tool? Or is there any trick on Windoze?

BTW, even hidden and NTFS, linux have access to the hidden NTFS contents. I guess I´ll move all data to CDs and under XP delete this partition to create a new one later. Deletion is the only option that diskmgmt.msc gaves me.

Regards
Marcus
PY3CRX/PY2PLL
http://py.qsl.br