[SOLVED] Dual system- suse-win2k problem

[nnannos]

I have an already installed dual boot system version 7.1 suse and win2k,
I'm trying to add an another win2k setup from the same pc with the acronis on the partition that win2k is, when i do this the win2k works but linux doesn't(kernel panik , no init found message), if i just put again the linux-win2k version of win2k with acronis then it works again, if i format the win2k partition the linux works.
I am going crazy because i don't know what info are stored on the hd when i install the other win2k, are any partition info stored in the specific partition? I noticed that the new win2k version has partition(1) in boot.ini and the original(working) partition(3), changed that and then a messae that ntoskrnl.exe not found appeared.
Does anyone know what is happening because i am confused?
Yes i know installing the linux from the beggining with the new ver of win2k is easier but i can't find suse 7.1 and the pc is old
Thanks in advance

[yancek]

I'm having serious difficulty understanding what you are trying to do. You say you have w2k and Suse 7.1 and are trying to add another w2k setup "from" the same pc to what? where? "on the partition that w2k is"?? Are you overwriting your w2k partition with another w2k partition?

How many hard drives do you have?
How many operating systems do you have?
What are they?
What exactly are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to install an OS on another partition? Create a backup image?
How are you trying to boot, which bootloader?
Have you had the Suse 7.1 and w2k dual boot working, both bootable in the past?

[nnannos]

I'm having serious difficulty understanding what you are trying to do. You say you have w2k and Suse 7.1 and are trying to add another w2k setup "from" the same pc to what? where? "on the partition that w2k is"?? Are you overwriting your w2k partition with another w2k partition?

How many hard drives do you have?
How many operating systems do you have?
What are they?
What exactly are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to install an OS on another partition? Create a backup image?
How are you trying to boot, which bootloader?
Have you had the Suse 7.1 and w2k dual boot working, both bootable in the past?

Before installing the suse-win2k version, i had installed a win2k version with many user configurations, suse-win2k works fine, win2k only ver works fine, i am just trying to replace the win2k ver in suse-win2k with the old win2k ver(from acronis backup image) in the partition of win2k, then the win2k works and the linux has a message that kernel panic, init not found. Hope that i cleared that out now(it is complecated from it's own my situation)

[Jonathan183]

Can you post output of

su -
fdisk -l

from working version of Linux.
Then restore the version of Win2k you want, boot from a live CD and repost the output of

fdisk -l

Is the bootloader grub or lilo? you may find Supergrub useful to boot Linux and then reinstall the bootloader.

[nnannos]

Can you post output of

su -
fdisk -l

from working version of Linux.
Then restore the version of Win2k you want, boot from a live CD and repost the output of

fdisk -l

Is the bootloader grub or lilo? you may find [] useful to boot Linux and then reinstall the bootloader.

The boot loader is lilo, running the fdisk -l with the working install and after installing the win2k again by acronis is:
THIS IS WORKING SUSE7.1—WIN2k version
Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 1216 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 4 32098+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 5 250 1975995 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 251 1200 7630875 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda4 1201 1216 128520 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 1201 1216 128488+ 82 Linux swap


THIS IS THE SAME SUSE7.1 WITH WIN2K NEW VER INSTALLED TO NTFS PARTITION

Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 1216 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 251 1200 7630875 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 * 1 4 32098+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 5 250 1975995 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 1201 1216 128520 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 1201 1216 128488+ 82 Linux swap

Partition table entries are not in disk order


Obviously made some changes after the win2k installation, should i just change the hda1 2 and 3?Why did that happen?If i want to have them with the initial order(physical order as before start -end from low to high) what should i change?
Also why did it mark 2 partitions as boot???Before no partition was marked as boot but worked!!

[Jonathan183]

You should only have current hda1 marked as bootable, you should be able to change this using fdisk. Boot from a live CD and use fdisk to remove bootable marker from hda2. I think fdisk will allow you to renumber partitions as well. After you have made the modifications run fdisk -l and check partition layout is as required.

fdisk /dev/hda

to make changes ... depending on the live CD you use you may need to use

fdisk /dev/sda

[nnannos]

You should only have current hda1 marked as bootable, you should be able to change this using fdisk. Boot from a live CD and use fdisk to remove bootable marker from hda2. I think fdisk will allow you to renumber partitions as well. After you have made the modifications run fdisk -l and check partition layout is as required.

fdisk /dev/hda

to make changes ... depending on the live CD you use you may need to use

fdisk /dev/sda

Thank you, it worked fine after using fdisk!!!
I'm new to linux but it is fascinating the way you can control everything, i think i'm going to stuck with it!!!
But i cannot decide on which distribution should i use, can you suggest me anything for home use?I want to have wireless network also

[Jonathan183]

Glad you have things working . Can you mark the thread solved as it may help others in future .

I used openSUSE for quite a while and it is a good distro to start with - there are others, Ubuntu and Mint for instance ... see this thread