<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name=ProgId content=Word.Document> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 10"> <meta name=Originator content="Microsoft Word 10"> <link rel=File-List href="cid:filelist.xml@01C5721A.75C6B4C0"> <o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PersonName"/> <o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="time"/> <o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="date"/>  <style>  </style>  </head> <body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='tab-interval:.5in'> <div class=Section1 style='layout-grid:15.6pt'> Sorry for the confusion. I shouldn’t use hda1, hda2, hda3, …. as my own naming to represent consecutive partition 1, 2, 3, …. as I was thinking of simplifying the description. The disk actually has more than that & I’ll describe again using Linux device/partition name according to the partition table listed below:<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 2550 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda2 2551 9728 57657285 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/hda5 2551 2567 136521 83 Linux /dev/hda6 2568 2600 265041 82 Linux swap /dev/hda7 2601 4972 19053058+ 83 Linux /dev/hda8 4973 7394 19454683+ e W95 FAT16 (LBA) /dev/hda9 7395 8560 9365863+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda10 8561 9728 9381928+ 7 HPFS/NTFS <o:p> </o:p> /dev/hda1, /dev/hda9, & /dev/hda10 originally contain WinXP (English, Traditional Chinese, & Simplified Chinese respectively). /dev/hda5, /dev/hda6, & /dev/hda7 was original a single partition before Linux installation, and I booted WinXP installation CD to repartition it to become 3 partitions for /boot, swap, and /. Locations, sizes, and contents of all other partitions remain unchanged. /dev/hda8 is an empty partition. After Linux installation, I can still boot WinXP from /dev/hda1 but the other 2 WinXPs are not bootable although I can verify from the bootable WinXP of the 1st partition that the contents are still there. I am also unable to boot the WinXP installation CD which I previously used for partitioning, although it can be read after WinXP of the 1st partition is booted and it can also be booted at another PC.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <pre>>On <st1:date Year="2005" Day="15" Month="6">Wed, Jun 15, 2005</st1:date> at <st1:time Minute="47" Hour="18">06:47:33PM</st1:time> +0800, <st1:PersonName>Andrew Tsang</st1:PersonName> wrote:<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> I original have 3 Windows XP (different languages) respectively in<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> partition hda1 (1st partition), hda3, and hda4. Partition hda2 was<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> empty.<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>So you had primary partitions 1, 3, and 4. Was all the hard disk<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>covered by those three?<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> I then repartitioned hda2 to become 3 consecutive partitions &<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> the previous partition hda3 & hda4 became hda5 and hda6 but there was no<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> change with the actual disk location where the 3 Windows partitions<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> resided.<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>Ok, now I'm unclear. Is hda2 an extended partition covering the space<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>formerly owned by hda3 and 4, and what else?<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>What became of the entries for hda3 and hda4?<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>What else does hda2 cover?<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> Then I installed Red Hat Linux with /boot in hda2,<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>That won't work if hda2 is an extended partition.<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> swap in hda3<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> & / in hda4. I used Grub to configure for multiple boot during the<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> installation. After installation (without error), I was able to boot<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> Linux and Windows XP of hda1 (the 1st partition). But when I booted the<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> Windows XP of either partition hda5 or hda6, booting failed and the<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> following error message was displayed:<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> <o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> "The following file is damaged or missing, unable to boot Windows:<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> <Windows root>\system32\hal.dll ...."<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> <o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> I tried to recover from the Windows XP installation CD, but I was unable<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> to boot the CD (booting of the CD works on another PC). When the PC<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> displayed "Hit any key to boot from CD ..", I hit ENTER and it displayed<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> "Setup is inspecting your hardware configuration", then screen blanked<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> and the PC hung. I needed to reset the PC and the same process repeated.<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> Booting of the Linux installation CD is fine. Note that the Windows XP<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> installation CDs booted well before the Linux installation.<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> <o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> How can I recover the boot record (or something else) so that I can boot<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> from the Windows Installation CD as well as the 2 Windows XP in<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> partition hda5 & hda6?<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> <o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> <o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>> --<st1:PersonName>Andrew Tsang</st1:PersonName><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>Could you please post your current partition table? That would help<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>me.<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>Cheers,<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>-- <o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>Bob McClure, Jr. Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>robertmcclure earthlink net <a href="http://www.bobcatos.com">http://www.bobcatos.com</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>>God is more interested in our availability than our ability.<o:p></o:p></pre> <o:p> </o:p> </div> </body> </html>