cypher000

Hi Guy's. I was really clever and actually managed to install Debian on my USB hard drive. It was great too untill my hard drive trashed out. I have to sort out another, but meanwhile I need to restore my windows boot.
I had a dual boot system set up and that was fine till the drive mashed itself. Now, when I try to boot my computer, I cannot boot my win XP and all I get is the following.

GRUB loading stage 5.

GRUB loading. Please wait.

Error 21.

Thats it. Nothing. So I am having to resort to my 'live' Knoppix disk to get on here and ask for help.

I note from Knoppix Hacks, that I can remove GRUB from the Master Boot Record and everything should then return to Win XP control and boot as normal. I have gleaned so much. Can anyone PLEASE have a look at this and advise me. I would really value any help in sorting this problem out.

Knoppix Hacks say's. To remove traces of GRUB or LILO from the MBR, run.

sudo install-mbr /dev/hda

So do I type this in as per the book and replece /hda with my win XP drive letter C. This is the bit that's confusing.

Hope someone can take a look at this before I make the move. Thanks a lot. Cypher

devils casper

Do you have Windows Installation CD? Best and easiest way is, boot up from Windows Installation CD and select Repair. Execute Fixmbr command at repair prompt. It will remove GRUB and Windows OS will boot up by default on reboot.

In case you want to use Knoppix CD only, execute this
I have never used above command though but I am sure it will work.

__________________

cypher000

Hi Devils Casper. Sadly when I bought this computer, it had Win XP already installed, so no disks, nothing. Thats one of the reasons I was attracted to Linux. At least with Linux I will never be cut and dried with Chronic Gates Syndrome.

Well I have sweated over this. The last thing I tried was using Sudo Apt-get to do the job, but it seems that Apt-get does not work with the Knoppix 'live' CD. It works if you have Knoppix installed on the Hard Drive, but not otherwise. Shame.

Anyway I was digging inmto the book Knoppix Hacks and came across this. Sudo install-mbr /dev/hda It worked and my MBR was clear of Grub. (The self same code that you have told me about.) I had made a backup just in case something went wrong. Phew! So now I have the dreaded Win XP back as it was before. But I do not have Debian. Tut! Tut!

So now I am going to have to read up on Debian Partitioning so that I do not get into any more trouble. Many thanks for all the kindness you have shown to me. Regards Walt (Cypher)

devils casper

We can help you in Debian Partitioning and installation but we have to check partition structure of your Hard disk first.
Boot up from Knoppix CD and execute sudo fdisk -l command in Terminal. Start a new thread in Debian Forum and post output of fdisk -l command there. Just post a link of your new thread here.

or

__________________

cypher000

Hi again. Going to do that as soon as I have had my morning cuppa. Will get back to you with the results. Many thanks for helping. Walt (Cypher)

cypher000

Hi again. Got stuck in this morning as you sugested and printed out 'Sudo fdisk -l' and this is what I got back from the terminal. I will just put it down as it printed out. OK?

Units=cylinders of 16065 * 512=8225280 bytes

Device. Boot. Start. End. Blocks. Id. System
/dev/hda1 * 1 2433 19543041 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk/dev/sda: 80.0GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads. 63 sectors/track. 9729 cylinders.
Units=cylinders ofg 16065 * 512=8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start. End. Blocks. Id. System.
/dev/sda1 1 25550 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 2551 9562 56323890 7 HPFS/NTFS


Disk/dev/sdb: 4047 MB, 404750848 bytes
4 heads, 32 sectors/track, 61759 cylinders
Units=cylinders of 128 * 512=65536 bytes

Device. Boot. Start. End. Blocks. ID. System.
/dev/sdb1 * 1 61760 3952623+ b W95 FAT32
Knoppix@Knoppix:~$

Hope that this makes some sort of sense to you and that it might help you in some way to get a grasp of my situation. I have logged in to the Debian forums and will ask around on there to see if I can get some sort of a walk through with the Debian installer.(it seemed so simple, but wasn't) and maybe I shall be able to have another go. Regards Grandad Walt.

devils casper

80GB hard disk has 2 partitions. I would suggest you to create two new partitions for Debian. You can use PartedMagic LiveCD to shrink existing and create new partitions. Its one of the best partition manager.

Either create one Extended and two Logical Partitions inside Extended Or create two Primary Partitions.

10-15 GB, ext3
512MB, SWAP

Start Debian installation and select Manual Partitioning in Partition Section. Select ext3 partition and assign it / mount point. Installer will detect SWAP partition and Windows OS. It will setup dual boot itself.

__________________

cypher000

Well I have had a couple of attempts to set up the partitioning on my USB Hard Drive. Still getting it wrong though. Okay so I created 2 Primary Partitions and a Swap Partition. I made the Primary Partition /mountpoint/root and the of course was swap. Not sure what to do with the other Primary. Anyway everything seems to go okay untill it writes them to the Drive. Then I keep getting the message. 'NO ROOT FILE SYSTEM' But one of the Partitions is root.....or have I got it all wrong. Again! Hope this gibberish makes sense. Cypher

cypher000

Hi Guy's. Many many thanks for all the encouragement you have given me. I now have Debian 4.0 up and running on my Hard Drive and I am so happy. I realise that this is not the Debian forum, but I did start out with Knoppix as I was using the 'live' CD to do it, but now everything is sorted out and I shall get out of your hair. Did I say that I was happy? I am very very happy. Thanks for being such an encouragement. Regards to all Cypher