Computer Not Booting Up After Partition...

[hater2win]

I used Partition Magic yesterday to format a linux ext 3 partition last night and turned it into an NTFS partition because I wanted to install another operating system on that partition. Either way, I let it run and it formatted and reallocated (I think at least) but not my computer wont boot up. It just shows and L and then a bunch of 9s... like this:

L 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99


Either way, I don't know what to do. I don't want to lose my stuff, but I will if I have to, I have it all backed up any way (I just didn't back up my firefox bookmarks, and I don't want to lose those).

Any suggestions? Insight?

 

[pcgeek11]

Originally posted by: hater2win
I used Partition Magic yesterday to format a linux ext 3 partition last night and turned it into an NTFS partition because I wanted to install another operating system on that partition. Either way, I let it run and it formatted and reallocated (I think at least) but not my computer wont boot up. It just shows and L and then a bunch of 9s... like this:

L 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99


Either way, I don't know what to do. I don't want to lose my stuff, but I will if I have to, I have it all backed up any way (I just didn't back up my firefox bookmarks, and I don't want to lose those).

Any suggestions? Insight?

It looks like you were using the lilo boot loader ( as indicated with the "L" displayed just before the screen fills with 99 99 99 99... Boot from the Windows XP CD go to the recovery console and type fixboot... Your master boot record is corrupted and needs to be rewritten.

Fixboot

Writes a new partition boot sector to the system partition. The fixboot command is only available when you are using the Recovery Console

fixboot [drive]

Parameter

drive

The drive to which a boot sector will be written. This replaces the default drive, which is the system partition you are logged on to. An example of a drive is:

D:

Example

The following example writes a new partition boot sector to the system partition in drive D:

fixboot d:

Note

? Using the fixboot command without any parameters will write a new partition boot sector to the system partition you are logged on to.



pcgeek11

 

[hater2win]

Alright, I have that drive partitioned off into C: and J:

The main one would be C: obviously, so I am going to fixboot that one. Should I fixboot J: also? Is there any reason to, thats the partition that I formatted and change to NTFS, but thats where I had slax installed (thats why I had LILO [which you were right on the head about by the way. you are t3h r0ck!]). Is there any possibility that could be causing problems (though that wouldn't make sense).

 

[hater2win]

Ok, I tried doing the FIXBOOT C: thing and it didn't work. I'm still getting that same screen with tthe 9's. =/

What do ya think?

 

[pcgeek11]

Originally posted by: hater2win
Ok, I tried doing the FIXBOOT C: thing and it didn't work. I'm still getting that same screen with tthe 9's. =/

What do ya think?

OK This is what is wrong with the system:
When the first stage loader gets control, it types the letter "L"; when it is ready to transfer control to the second stage loader it types the letter "I". If any error occurs, like a disk read error, it will put out a hexadecimil error code, and then it will re-try the operation. All hex error codes are BIOS return values, except for the lilo-generated 40, 99 and 9A. A partial list of error codes follows:
00 no error
01 invalid disk command
02 address mark not found
03 disk write-protected
04 sector not found
06 floppy disk removed
08 DMA overrun
0A bad sector flag
0B bad track flag
20 controller failure
40 seek failure (BIOS)
40 cylinder>1023 (LILO)
99 invalid second stage index sector (LILO)
9A no second stage loader signature (LILO)


Yours is a 99 which means " 99 invalid second stage index sector, Generated by Lilo. That is why you get an " L " then 99 repeated forever as it keeps trying to load the second stage.

I have fixed this problem by booting from a Windows 98 boot disk and at the A:\ prompt type " fdisk /mbr " without the quotes and press the enter key ... then reboot. You can also do thjis from the recovery console using the " fixmbr " command the same way you did the fixboot command. There are a lot of people that say you should not use the windows 98 boot disk to fix the mbr but they both rewrite the same first 446 bytes of the MBR, the portion known as the master boot code, leaving the existing partition table intact. This should fix your problem. Let me know how it goes.

pcgeek11