Help...

[Rubicant]

I have a general problem with a HD install on my system. Every time I try to do a lilo install to HDA , it fails...and I cannot generate a boot floppy...it consistently fails on me. the HD install goes well...its just I CANT BOOT THE THING! All files and folders show up...everything goes well....it just won't boot...

System layout is as follows:
HDA is a WD 40GB Drive with a solid NTFS 5 partition on it using all but 8MB at the end of the drive.
HDD is my Linux drive...its on the secondary slave slaved to the CDROM.
Knoppix HD is on this one. This drive is unique in that its mounted in a removable cage...that's it.. its an IDE hard drive, mounted in a removable rack for portability. Now..under Red Hat 7.2, this setup worked fine..buit I wanted a more advanced and less dumbed down version of Linux..so I heard about Knoppix...got it..and am trying it...the Live CD works great... the HD Install is not though. I am also using Knoppix 3.1, the second to latest release.

HELP! For the sake of my hairline..PLEASE! I've puilled out too much of my hair!

[SUOrangeman]

For some reason, some old fogies said "Thou BIOS shalt not boot above the 1023rd cylinder of a hard drive."

Apparently the BIOS geniuses figured that n one would ever need to boot a partition above that mark. On many hard drives, the 1023rd cylinder lies roughly 8GB into the drive. So, *bootable* partitions typically need to lie within the first 8GB. Why this archaic implementation still exists is beyond me.

Anyway, I'd be willing to bet this limit is the source of your frustrations. If that 8MB was the first partition of your drive, it would probably work.

-SUO, battling my own LILO gremlins at the moment

[Rubicant]

Thanks for the help...I may need to use Windisk to move my 8MB free space to the beginning of ym disk...

I wonder if anyone has written the 10 commandments of Lilo yet....