Linux to the rescue ?

[Robert Meyer]

The Mandrake boot disks provide a 'rescue' option.  If you have Mandrake
8.2 or later, you can stuff the install CD in the drive and when it boots,
hit the <F1> key to get to a prompt and type 'rescue'.  You will be
presented with a series of options, one of which is 'reinstall LILO
boot loader' or some such.  It will do what it says and life will be
good.  I've used this numerous times when folks I know do a windows
install after bad things happen to their windows partitions and it
overwrites the lilo boot.

Cheers!

Bob
--- Scott Lawton <green_man at bluefrog.biz> wrote:
> Regarding the Test Message, OK, so it works. 
> 
> Apropos Linux Withdrawal:
> 
> I got a 2nd hard drive and fed it WIN 98. Ultimately, one drive was going to
> be for Windows, and the other 
> for Mandrake. The original currently had Win 95 and Mandrake cohabitating. I
> had begun zipping and 
> transferring files over when my ISP changed my domain name and I lost NFLUG
> messages. 
> 
> While using Internet Exploiter in Win95 [ a mistake, I know] I think a popup 
> tried to write a font to C:\ 
> Windows\ Fonts  and absolutely seized up the machine. I had to shut down by
> killing the power because 
> it would not even recognize the system reset button. I had a BSD error
> message in the Symbole font, 
> but my knowledge of Greek is limited to algebraic equations. I was able to
> figure out that fonts was one 
> of the files corrupted in the illegal operation by that. 
> 
> I tried using the Windows "rescue" program and was told win.com was corrupted
> [ is that what the 
> registry is actually called ?], and it was going to format C: and install
> Windows, and I would have to 
> reinstall all my other software [ kill everyone, then shoot the survivors ] .
> I cancelled, but I think that 
> snuffed my LILO. 
> 
> Next reboot, no LILO, no nothin'. I then used the Windows boot disk, and was
> told it could not load 
> Windows because win.com was missing or corrupted. Booting to MS-DOS,
> everything is still there; at 
> least all the files are there in the list with what appear to be correct file
> sizes. 
> 
> To my horror and disgust, I've lost everything - games, saved games to 5th
> and 6th level, themes I've 
> created, including wallpapers, cursors, and icons that took many hours to
> refine, e-mail programs 
> including address books and saved messages, browser histories and bookmarks,
> and several gigs of 
> things archived in .zip files. It's there, but inaccessible. 
> 
> Since the Linux partitions are hopefully untouched, is there a way to use a
> Linux rescue program,  which 
> hopefully is of the "salvage" type, not "burn and bulldoze" like Microsoft,
> to access Mandrake and then 
> "backdoor" my way into Windows to get what I need ? 
> 
> I would like to bring it in to a meeting sometime, where we can pool the
> knowledge of those Windows 
> savvy and those who are Linux savvy, and make it the demonstration project,
> rather than just get 
> messages through the list that say "do this, try this" because I'm afraid of
> doing irrevocable damage to 
> the data. Once I retrieve everything, it will be how to install Linux and
> Windows to be dual boot from two 
> physical drives, and how to get LILO or GRUB to do that. It's been sitting
> idle for a few months, and can 
> sit for more, until this can be coordinated. 
> 
> P.S. - Greg Neumann, if you're out there, I lost your phone, email, address,
> and directions to your house 
> in the aforementioned great crash of ' 95.
> 
> -- 
> Scott
> Pegasus v 4.01
> 
> "There are 10 kinds of people in the world: 
> those who understand binary, and those who don't."
> Richard Hubbard 
> 


=====
Bob Meyer
Knightwing Communications, Inc.
36 Cayuga Blvd
Depew, NY 14043
Phone: 716-308-8931 or 716-681-0076
Meyer_RM at Yahoo.com

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