after using DSL-N can't find WindowsForum: DSL-N Topic: after using DSL-N can't find Windows started by: rkenwood Posted by rkenwood on Mar. 18 2007,19:18
Please if someone can help it would be much appriciated. I downloadedDSL-N after trying DSL and an other knoppix disk DSL-N is the olny one that lets me get on the net however when I tryed to reboot into Windows it said it can't find the operating system. If I must reinstall and reformat thats ok I guess but is there a way to access the hard drives with DSL-N and burn off my apps ,downloads,music ect.? I don't know what i did to get into this mess but being new to Linux I found the way. Please help before I do a reformat Posted by lucky13 on Mar. 18 2007,22:13
Did you mount your hard drive when using DSL? By default, it doesn't do anything to your drive. You can try starting Windows in safemode (hold f8 while you boot) or use your Windows recovery CD or floppy (you have one, right?). Also check your hard drive connectors and make sure they're properly seated. You shouldn't need to reformat anything (!!!!!!) to get it working again unless you mounted your hard drive and deleted files required to boot Windows or tampered with your MBR. If your MBR has been affected, you can do a search for fixing Windows MBR (using DOS floppy: fdisk /mbr). Just please slow down and figure out what the problem really is before "formatting" anything. Posted by rkenwood on Mar. 18 2007,22:25
I don't think I mounted sda1 which i think is the hard drive , I tried the F8 but itstill says no operating system found and when I use the recovery disk it wants to reformat the drive (says all user files and data will be lost) and I need the XP operating disk to reload the drivers which they were kind enuf not to furnish. This was pointed out to me by the Gateway folks . So i need to contact the guys I bought the computer from to get the operating system.Can I still access the hard drive and burn off my downloads ect so I can rebuild and how do I do that? Posted by lucky13 on Mar. 18 2007,22:38
Yes. Use emelfm, mount the drive (/mnt/sda1 if you're right -- USB or SCSI drive? if it's an old school hard drive, it's probably hda instead of sda), and you should be able to access your files. I think DSL-N has GCombust for burning your data. Not sure what you mean by "rebuild." I still think, though, you should try using a DOS floppy and fixing your MBR before getting all trigger happy with formatting (no!! not unless it's toast, and I'm not convinced it is from what you've written) and reinstalling (especially if you lack the XP CD -- can't reinstall what you don't have anyway). Unless you were totally reckless when you mounted your drive, your Windows stuff should be just fine and you only need to figure out why it's not loading. Could be a variety of things. The first step is always patience (followed by deep breaths). You can back up your data just in case, but I would try fixing only what's actually broken and not trying to fix what isn't broken. Posted by rkenwood on Mar. 18 2007,23:31
ok and by the way a huge thank you for your help (breathing again now).I opened emelfm and typed in mnt/sda1 and it shows sda1/ 1024 bytes but i don't know which button to push to show the files on that drive or how to access them. This is a gateway fx400xl with 4gb of ram and 2 250 gb hard drives the newer type by the way Next I don't have a DOS floopy and I'm not sure how to fix the MBR but I'm hopping that the place I bought the computer from will give me the OS disk and I will make a recovery disk right way. Also I had some heat problems with this computer before and when I got it back the Tech said he put a recovery partition on the C drive (SDA1 right?) if I can access the drive might I be able to do something with that? thanks again!! R Posted by rkenwood on Mar. 18 2007,23:52
I mounted sda1 and this is what the window showsSystem Recovery 1024 bytes Autorun.inf 45bytes Folder.htt 8121 bytes Info.exe 40.00 kbytes warning.bmp 94.51 kbytes Kinda sounds like this is the recovery partition which i think was around 500mb When I mount sda2 nothing shows and it says in the bottom could not determine the file system and none was specified and that sda2 is unmounted according to mtab Is sda2 the accual C drive and sda1 the recovery partition He put on ? Posted by lucky13 on Mar. 19 2007,12:19
No problem. Glad you're breathing.
In emelfm (as root), you can right click on mount points in /mnt and mount (and umount) them with your mouse. Each partition has its own mount point (sda1 and sda2 would be the first two partitions on SCSI or USB device sda).
I'm jealous.
Let's see if the problem can be narrowed down to MBR first. That's pretty easy if you have a DOS recovery floppy (fdisk /mbr), but that may not be the problem. I don't know if you opened your case and adjusted any cables before this (or after as I suggested), but at this point it could still be a hardware issue as much as it could be a software issue. Make sure the connectors on the hard drive are seated flush and that the ribbon cables aren't crimped or anything like that. The fact that you're now able to mount a partition using Linux, though, does reduce the likelihood of something like that being the issue. As far as what recovery partition your tech set up, I have no idea. I can't see your computer from here. You can paste in the output from fdisk -l (lowercase L) -- this just lists your available partitions -- here so we have an idea of what partitions you have, etc., and try to figure it out from that. You recovery partition won't be of much use, though, without a recovery CD -- and I'm wondering why the CD you used before went straight to a format option without asking if you wanted to recover. Hmmmm. |