Windows hates Linux

[ThePreacher]

I installed Mandrake linux 8.0 on my computer's second hard drive leaving windows on my first hard drive. Anyway the install went off without a hitch or so I thought until I tried booting it using Lilo. Anyway the bootloader froze up after the letters "LI" were displayed. Thinking I could still get linux to work using my boot disc I stuck it in to find out that Mandrake had not put all of the files onto it when it was created. After trying to use Grub instead and going through a complete reinstall I found that Grub froze up too. At this point I was frustrated so I decided I wanted to go back into windows and call it a night until I could get some help. I restored the master boot record for windows using fdisk and for some reason I found that windows just would not start up. After I got the computer into Safe mode I ran every utility I could and still found no problems. I borrowed a friends copy of Norton Utilities and was still unable to find out what the problem was. For 3 days I searched and found nothing. I even thought it might be a virus but Norton Antivirus 2002 says Im clean. Anyway due to my frustrations I unplugged my windows hard drive and left it there hanging. I then installed Mandrake as the only OS on my computer and found that the install was perfect. Anyway I decided to delete Mandrake until I get a new modem. That is where my new problem arises. Part of my mandrake partition, about 8 gigs, will not delete using any windows utilities that I have. Fdisk is saying that the linux partition is on a logical drive. Fdisk says I cant delete the partition until I delete the logical drive, but Fdisk insists that there are no logical drives on that hard disc. I need some help.

[Evil Homer]

I had a problem a lot like that......I ended up having to just use the partition utility on the linux installer to delete all partitions and make one big fat 16 partition, after that I was able to use windows utilities to change it all to fat 32 again without many problems

[ThePreacher]

All this time and I never thought to use Linux to delete the partition.

[magic1]

hello
use the file attached for erasing partitions with no logical drive
it works

i have win 2000 server and linux mandrake 8 in my computer and both of them works fine .

i hope this help
bye

[MrLinus]

Hey Preacher,

What version of windows is it? I've seen this lilo freeze on a few systems and if its NT/2000 there is a way around it.

As for deleting the linux partition. All you need is delpart.exe. This is a dos partition deleting utility and recognizes any format of partition from Novell to Solaris to Linux (yes, it makes a distinction between them). Just go to www.google.com and type in delpart.exe. You should be able to find it.

Plop it on a boot disk or a 2nd diskette if need be. Boot it up and follow through. You need to make sure you don't delete your windows partition. After that is done, reboot with the boot disk and when at the command prompt, type fdisk /mbr. That gets rid of any left over lilo that might be in the MBR (Master Boot Record).

And then viola! You are back to you windows setup. I'd recommend RH 7.1(btw, stay away from RH7.2. We've been doing tests here and the filesystem is weird and buggy)

[Matty_Cross]

Hey...

Here is some information on LILO Failures...
http://sdb.suse.de/sdb/en/html/kgw_lilo_errmsg.html

[tripstone]

Thanks for the info...I am trying to install turbolinux on an older machine, when I do a boot from cdrom so I can start the installation...it hangs at the loadlin stage...since winders was on before...I tried to fdisk and ran into the same prob as preacher...cannot delete dos partition while logical drives exist cannot delete logical drives because none are defined also stating that all logical drives have been deleted...cannot define new partition as there is no space...already did a fat16 format...cant do anything....hope that the proggie you recommended will get me moving in the right direction....thanks

[jackthekiller]

If FDISK won't work. Try using Partition Magic. It should be work.

[jackthekiller]

Partition Magic work both WIN and Linux.Try,

http://www.partitionmagic.com/partitionmagicpro

[ThePreacher]

I would like to thank everyone who replied. All of my problems have been corrected, and as I write this I am using Mandrake Linux 8.1 for the first time. I had to buy a new modem, but it was well worth the price to try something like this out. Linux will probably be on more than windows now that I can connect to the internet.