Bootloaders Hate Me...

TheRaginAsian · 2005-01-26 01:58:16

Ok, here we go... First off, I realize I was being very stupid, but I thought it would work. I had everything working PERFECTLY setup like this:

IDE Master 40GB:
1) all 40GB NTFS Windows XP Pro SP2

IDE Slave 120GB:
1) 19 GB NTFS Data
2) 1 GB Linux Swap
3) 20 GB ResierFS Arch Installed
4) 70 GB NTFS Data

GRUB worked fine and allowed me to boot to windows or arch... well, this is what I did using XP's Disk Manager:

IDE Slave 120GB:
1) 5 GB FAT32 Data
2) 14 GB NTFS Data
2) 1 GB Linux Swap
3) 20 GB ResierFS Arch Installed
4) 70 GB NTFS Data

So basically, I deleted the 19GB NTFS partiton I had and turn it into a 15GB NTFS and a 5GB FAT32 partition (I was trying to make a share point to share files between linux and windows, forgot to initially).

Of coruse, because this was a VERY RETARDED THING TO DO, GRUB doesnt work (oh go figure!).

GRUB loading stage1.5
GRUB Error 21

SO, i basically try everything I can think of under the sun to re-install GRUB, i even tried SEVERAL times to use Lilo... no luck.

When it was all said and done, id rather have a working OS than no OS so I "fixboot" and "fixmbr" with the XP Recovery Console, letting me access XP at the least, so I could make this sorry cry for help.

I figure "oh well, least I only lost linux, ill just download the new release of 0.7 and reinstall"

Right... well, I do all that, reformat with Reiser again, and reinstall GRUB... what? SAME ERROR?

GRUB loading stage1.5
GRUB Error 21

Now, let me make it pefectly clear that I have tried reinstalling both GRUB and LILO in all possibly way I read about and could think of, no matter how i try it, LILO and GRUB will both have errors. LILO reports an error that the root partition and map are not on the same disk, and GRUB will give me a "Partition does not exist" error during grub-install.

Aside from backing up my massive amounts of data (I do Digital Video and Audio Producing) and recreating my whole partition structure on both disks, I have no idea how to be able to get it back to that wonderful day when I had both Linux and Windows running in harmony.

So my question of coruse is, would anyone like to take this adventure with me?

P.S.: To those reading this saying this kid is too dumb for help, your probabaly right... but dont ya wanna even try? THANKS FOR ANYTHING guys, Arch is great, and its for that reason exactly that i want it back!

phrakture · 2005-01-26 03:11:58

a) what does your grub.conf look like? can you post it here
b) did you increment the partition numbers in the config, as you incremented the partition count on the second disk
c) for sharing files between windows/linux you can use samba for 2 different systems 8)

iphitus · 2005-01-26 03:16:53

afaik windows disk manager doesnt create normal partitions, it does it in some wierd other way, and you need special support in your kernel etc...

so you're going to have to either boot knoppix or somethign and partition properly, then install. or if you want easy to use partitioning, download mandrake 10.1 cd 1, go through it, partition drive, then quit it, you dont need to install.

syamajala · 2005-01-26 13:42:12

error 21 is an unknown boot failure which means it could be anything. I had this kind error in fedora but i fixed it by disconnecting the hds and just reconnecting them.

TheRaginAsian · 2005-03-07 06:06:47

Thank you all for the help... after waiting FOREVER I finally am back and VERY happily using Linux once again... Used Partition Magic and all is now right in the universe! Should have just used it in the first place... ugh... but I guess it was a worthwhile learning experience. The reason it took so long for me to get back on was because I wanted to backup 80GB of digital video and data before I tried messing with the partitions ANY more... Arch Rocks!

iphitus · 2005-03-07 08:35:26

hehehe, just in future, dont use the XP one.

It does crazy abnormal stuff with partitions.

Arch Linux

#1 2005-01-26 01:58:16

Bootloaders Hate Me...

#2 2005-01-26 03:11:58

Re: Bootloaders Hate Me...

#3 2005-01-26 03:16:53

Re: Bootloaders Hate Me...

#4 2005-01-26 13:42:12

Re: Bootloaders Hate Me...

#5 2005-03-07 06:06:47

Re: Bootloaders Hate Me...

#6 2005-03-07 08:35:26

Re: Bootloaders Hate Me...

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