Moved / partition and now have problems booting via boot.ini

[s'tan]

I used windows partition magic 8 to create new win partition and placed it before my Linux partition (Knoppix 3.7). after that Linux didn't want to boot because the root partition hda8 became hda9, which was logical. after that i deleted windows partition and placed it at the end so Linux partition became hda8 again. then i used knoppix boot disc and logged into linux and via command dd created new file bootsect.lnx and placed it on partition C, and after i again edited boot.ini file.
but now i can normally boot linux via boot diskette ONLY, but cannot via boot.ini. when i click on Linux all i get is a screen with numbers 9999999999999 all over the screen.

do you know how can i fix this or i have to reinstall linux?

pls do not suggest using lilo or grub, cause i am used to boot.ini and would not like to chage it.

[retired1af]

You still need to install LILO to the root partition of the Linux installation.

Here's a good How-To on using NTLDR as your boot manager.

[drakebasher]

If you search these forums, you'll find extensive discussions about using boot.ini. You won't find many fans, though, because it is an awkward way of booting: but you've learned that already. Another method to consider, for temporary, or for emergency, or maybe just to get familiar with Grub, is to boot from a floppy with Grub installed on it. You can set it up so that booting without the floppy, you'll go to Windows and with the floppy, you can either go straight to Linux or you can set it up to offer a choice of Linux or Windows. And you won't have to touch your MBR.

[s'tan]

well lilo is on the root partition. i forgot to say that after i logged to linux, i reinstalled lilo on the same root partition (by typing lilo in the shell). is this enough?

[retired1af]

I would first uninstall it using lilo -u. Make sure the lilo.conf file is correct, make the boot file, copy it to the root directory of /hda, then run lilo -b /dev/hdX (where X is the designation of your root partition).

[s'tan]

I would first uninstall it using lilo -u. Make sure the lilo.conf file is correct, make the boot file, copy it to the root directory of /hda, then run lilo -b /dev/hdX (where X is the designation of your root partition).

i understand everything exept how to make a boot file? i understand taht it is to be put on the / (root) partition.

[retired1af]

Sorry. Wrong terminology (must get more coffee). This would be your image file created using the dd command.

Example:

dd if=/dev/hdb1 of=bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1

The resulting file would be called bootsec.lnx.


I made a boo-boo in an earlier post. You should run your lilo -b command before running dd.

[s'tan]

ok. ok. now i get it. i will try this.

[s'tan]

forgot to ask, my win partition where boot image will be placed is NTFS so i cannot copy onto it directly from linux but via diskette (have to boot win). will this change anything you said?

[retired1af]

Nope. Copy the image file to a disk, fire up Windows and copy the image file to the root directory of that disk. Modify your boot.ini file accordingly and you should be good to go.