windows lost after installing Linux

[Ankush Grover]

Hey friends,

  One of my friend has recently installed FC4 on a Desktop PC on which
Windows 2000 was there. Now he is not able to boot to windows and he has
very important files on windows.

How will he get the option of dual boot means how to edit grub so that he
can get the option of dual boot?


Thanks & Regards

Ankush Grover

[Tim]

On Fri, 2006-04-28 at 19:54 +0530, Ankush Grover wrote:
>  One of my friend has recently installed FC4 on a Desktop PC on which
>  Windows 2000 was there. Now he is not able to boot to windows and he
>  has very important files on windows.
>  
>  How will he get the option of dual boot means how to edit grub so that
>  he can get the option of dual boot? 
Post us the output of:  fdisk -l

Then we can see what discs have what on them, to give more specific
advice.

-- 
(Currently running FC4, in case that's important to the thread)

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.
I read messages from the public lists.

[Ankush Grover]

>  Post us the output of:  fdisk -l
>
>  Then we can see what discs have what on them, to give more specific
>  advice.
>
>  hey, 


Thanks everybody for your advice . As I don't have access to that machine as
it is in some other city and running behind firewall with private ipaddress
I can't access it.I have mailed my friend with 2 things

a)  output of fdisk -l
b)  Add these lines to  /etc/grub.conf
 title Windows 2000
 rootnoverify (hd0,0)
 chainloader +1

he told me that he did not overwrite the windows partition he can install
the ntfs rpm and copy his important files to a linux partition if he is not
able to boot into the windows.


Thanks & Regards

Ankush Grover

[Jonathan Berry]

On 4/28/06, Ankush Grover <ankush174(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  Hey friends,
>
>     One of my friend has recently installed FC4 on a Desktop PC on which
>  Windows 2000 was there. Now he is not able to boot to windows and he has
>  very important files on windows. 
Always, always, *always* back up important files before doing
something like installing another OS ;).

>   How will he get the option of dual boot means how to edit grub so
> that he
>  can get the option of dual boot? 
Assuming that Windows is still there, it's a simple edit to
/etc/grub.conf (edit as root).  Something like:

title Windows 2000
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Then save, reboot, select Windows 2000 and hopefully it will boot.  If
Windows happens to be on another drive/partition, adjust (hd0,0)
accordingly.  See:
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/
for more details on GRUB.

Jonathan

[Aaron Konstam]

On Fri, 2006-04-28 at 19:54 +0530, Ankush Grover wrote:
>  Hey friends,
>  
>    One of my friend has recently installed FC4 on a Desktop PC on which
>  Windows 2000 was there. Now he is not able to boot to windows and he
>  has very important files on windows.
>  
>  How will he get the option of dual boot means how to edit grub so that
>  he can get the option of dual boot?
>  
>   

Changed the grub.conf to osmething like this, with changes so the
correct partitions are indicated:# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this
file
# NOTICE:  You do not have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
#          root (hd0,2)
#          kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda3
#          initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,2)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.15-1.1833_FC4)
        root (hd0,2)
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.1833_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb
quiet
        initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.15-1.1833_FC4.img

title Win2000
        rootnoverify (hd0,0) 
	chainloader +1


It may be he will have to reinstall grub with:
grub-install

[Oldman]

On Fri, 2006-04-28 at 19:54 +0530, Ankush Grover wrote:
>  Hey friends,
>  
>    One of my friend has recently installed FC4 on a Desktop PC on which
>  Windows 2000 was there. Now he is not able to boot to windows and he
>  has very important files on windows.
>  
>  How will he get the option of dual boot means how to edit grub so that
>  he can get the option of dual boot?
>  
>  
>  Thanks & Regards
>  
>  Ankush Grover 
	It depends upon how Fedora was installed, but in order for anyone to
say how and if it can be repaired, please respond with the output of the
command:

fdisk -l
( note the the  'l' is an ell not a one)
(the above command will only work if previously, the operator issued the
command:

su -

and responded with the root password, when asked.

this will tell us where the windows partition is providing he didn't
tell fedora to write over the windows partition, which would be bad.

Scott

[Douglas Phillipson]

Ankush Grover wrote:
>  Hey friends,
>  
>    One of my friend has recently installed FC4 on a Desktop PC on which 
>  Windows 2000 was there. Now he is not able to boot to windows and he has 
>  very important files on windows.
>  
>  How will he get the option of dual boot means how to edit grub so that 
>  he can get the option of dual boot?
>  
>  
>  Thanks & Regards
>  
>  Ankush Grover
>   
If you have a Win98 boot floppy laying around, you can boot it and at 
the dos prompt type "fdisk /mbr" (Without the quotes).  This will 
restore the  Microsoft master boot record.  Then reboot.  Then you don't 
have to deal with grub.  This assumes he didn't overwrite the whole 
windows installation with FC4.

Doug P

[Jeff Vian]

On Fri, 2006-04-28 at 09:25 -0700, Douglas Phillipson wrote:
>  
>  Ankush Grover wrote:
>  > Hey friends,
>  > 
>  >   One of my friend has recently installed FC4 on a Desktop PC on which 
>  > Windows 2000 was there. Now he is not able to boot to windows and he has 
>  > very important files on windows.
>  > 
>  > How will he get the option of dual boot means how to edit grub so that 
>  > he can get the option of dual boot?
>  > 
>  > 
>  > Thanks & Regards
>  > 
>  > Ankush Grover
>  > 
>  
>  If you have a Win98 boot floppy laying around, you can boot it and at 
>  the dos prompt type "fdisk /mbr" (Without the quotes).  This will 
>  restore the  Microsoft master boot record.  Then reboot.  Then you don't 
>  have to deal with grub.  This assumes he didn't overwrite the whole 
>  windows installation with FC4.
>   
This will restore the microsoft boot record.  However, it will not
restore the ntloader which is needed to boot from the ntfs partition.

He can do better by booting to the W2K install disk and selecting the
repair console then he will have a command that (I believe) is called
FIXMBR which will restore the boot sector.

However, it has been requested several times that the OP provide the
output of "fdisk -l" so we can confirm the Windows partition is still
there.  If he overwrote the windows partition it cannot be recovered.

>  Doug P
>