Re: reinstall lilo after windows
On Thu, Sep 08, 2005 at 04:39:22PM +0200, Rakotomandimby Mihamina wrote:
> Hi,
> I will have to reinstall my windows XP because I messed it up.
> I know it will fire my bootloader (lilo on the MBR)
>
> That lilo loads three linux installation at the moment (one Debian, one
> Mandriva and one Fedora). They are respectively an hda1 to hda3. Lilo's
> on the same partition as the Debian, and it's the debian's loader. The 2
> other distros are loaded by that only one boot loader (they have not
> their own)
The simplest thing I've found is to change your lilo.conf so it
writes the MBR of your floopy drive instead of your hard disk.
THen you can boot from floppy before you install Windows to make
sure it works. And because floppies are cheap and dismountable,
you can have as many MBR's as you want while you're trying out changes
to lilo.conf. I make sure I have at least two for every serious
boot configuration. Floppies do occasionally die.
Then install Windows, while your lilo boot floppies are safe on a shelf
somewhere.
Then you'll still be able to boot Linux from floppies, reconfigure lilo
to include Windows, and debug your lilo.conf using *different* boot
floppies. ONly when you have it right do you write another MBR to your hard disk.
And by the way, I've discovered Linux is a very useful tool when installing
Windows. Frequently it asks you to reboot during installation.
Occasionally, when it asks be to do so, I reboot to Linux instead of
Windows, and use the occasion to make a full backup of the WIndows partition
being installed. Then I reboot to WIndows as requested.
I've had enough trouble with Widows crashing during installation
that restoring a partly installed WIndows from backup has been a real
time-saver.
-- hendrik
Reply to: