Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: Urgent! Need Help!

  1. June 14th, 2002, 12:54 AM #1
    zero_signal666
    zero_signal666 is offline
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Posts
    5

    Urgent! Need Help!

    Ok here goes,
    I installed KDE Mandrake Linux as winlinux or as a file in windows. Earlier today i stupidly deleted the linux file. I then reinstalled linux as i have before. But now everytime the GRUB comes up and i choose to boot up windows it gives me the message "disk i/o error. replace and press any key when ready." so i press a key and then it gives me the message "Unable to access hard-drive." Then in several seconds another message pops up saying "operating system not found on any devices. press any key to try again." Could it be possible i could have written over window? Well if you have any idea what happened or how to fix it let me know. I've already tried the factory restore several times and that still hasnt done anything. Please it'd mean alot if you could help.

    -peace
    zero signal
    Reply With Quote Reply With Quote
  2. June 14th, 2002, 01:02 AM #2
    MrLinus
    MrLinus is offline
    Just a Virtualized Geek MrLinus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    Redondo Beach, CA
    Posts
    7,323
    It does sound like you have indeed overwritten your Windows partition. To verify this do the following (assuming you have one hard disk)

    Log into Linux
    Then open a terminal (command line) window and type:

    fdisk /dev/hda

    Then hit p to display everything. Write it down and paste it here.

    If you don't see a partition that says FAT16 or FAT32 or something like that.. it means yer windows went poof.
    Goodbye, Mittens (1992-2008). My pillow will be cold without your purring beside my head
    Extra! Extra! Get your FREE copy of Insight Newsletter||MsMittens' HomePage
    Reply With Quote Reply With Quote
  3. June 14th, 2002, 01:03 AM #3
    roswell1329
    roswell1329 is offline
    Senior Member roswell1329's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Posts
    670
    you probably didn't delete windows at all, but when you installed linux you probably overwrote the master boot record with grub. windows is likely still there, but the system has no way to know how to get there. you might be able to recover or replace the boot record with some kind of MBR utility like the Ranish Partition Manager (http://www.ranish.com/part/). Ranish should at least be able to detect the partition.
    /* You are not expected to understand this. */
    Reply With Quote Reply With Quote
  4. June 14th, 2002, 01:04 AM #4
    rcgreen
    rcgreen is offline
    AO Curmudgeon rcgreen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Posts
    2,716

    Thumbs up

    Sounds like you have corrupted the Master Boot Record.
    This sector holds the boot loader.
    The most common fix is to boot with a bootable floppy disk.
    You need this disk to have the FDISK.EXE program
    (usually found in windows\command directory)

    You type FDISK/MBR and hit ENTER
    This restores the standard windows boot loader
    and should boot windows, unless something else is
    also damaged.
    I came in to the world with nothing. I still have most of it.
    Reply With Quote Reply With Quote
« Previous Thread | Next Thread »

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  

Forum Rules