re: windows98 won't start [Dual-boot with Linux]
Monday, April 27, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Windows 98 Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by gewg_
(3939 messages posted)
Here's how your post looks:
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win98/1240879958
I find it difficult to read.
The first 2 paragraphs here are worth reading:
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win98/1217046552
pam eisenbarth wrote:
|[...]her neighbor..the same person who installed [Linux] on the computer
|asked me if I wanted to upgrade the [Linux] to [Ubuntu], so i said ok.
|Ever since he did the upgrade[,]
|when I try to boot windows the computer restarts.
|
Windows is an operating system.
Linux (Ubuntu) is another operating system.[1]
You can only have one operating system running at a time.
(There is a case where the only-one thing is not true, but that is esoteric.)
If your Linux guy did this properly, then you have a "Boot Manager".
This is a program that takes control before any operating system starts.
At that point, YOU select which operating system YOU want to run.
If the Boot Manager isn't installed, you don't get a choice.
There is also an (optional) timeout on the Boot Manager
so that it can be set to make a choice for you ("the default")
--if you *don't* make a selection within a certain time.
This allows you to just switch on the machine and go get a beverage.
Ask your Linux guy what he used as a value when set that.
He may have set it up such that the Boot Manager doesn't show at all (by default).
He **SHOULD** have asked YOUR preferences on all of this.
A second possibility is that one of the operating systems (Windoze) is broken,
and that OS won't start.
The solution there is to reinstall the broken OS.[2]
CAVEAT: Old versions of Windoze think M$ is the only producer of software
and that everybody wants only M$ software.
This means that when Win98 gets installed,
it will nuke the Boot Sector (where your Boot Manager resides).
If you allow the Windoze re-install to do so
(using FDISK to re-partition the disk[3]), it will also nuke your Linux partition.
In the case of a nuked Boot Sector,
the Boot Manager (typically LiLo or GRUB) will have to be re-installed
(by your Linux guy).
In the case of a nuked Linux partition,
the disk will have to be repartitoned i.e. split (Linux contains the tools for that),
the new partition will have to be FORMAT'd (ext3 filesystem, most likely),
then Linux will have to be re-installed.
[1] It would be interesting to me to know what use you have for Linux.
It sounds to me like it's just sitting there idle.
(As Linux is MUCH less subject to infections, it is a superior OS to use online.)
[2] Having a working Linux install on the system is quite useful
to back up any files that you have created/saved on the Windoze partition.
Linux understands FAT/FAT32 just fine.
[3] FDISKing a disk is actually advisable when you think you have an infection;
it zaps any Boot-Sector viruses.
- Written in response to:
- windows98 won't start (pam eisenbarth: Monday, April 27, 2009 at 5:52 pm)
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 |  | re: windows98 won't start [Dual-boot with Linux] (gewg_: Mon, Apr 27, 2009, 7:16 pm) |
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