Try setting the bootable flag using Liunx's fdisk and then rebooting. If you get an "Operating system not found" or "Non-system disk message" the boot sector on the boot partition has been corrupted. (The boot sector is not the same as the MBR. The MBR is the first sector on the first drive. A boot sector is the first record on a partition. The MBR code loads the boot sector code from the partition marked "bootable". The boot sector code is then responsible for loading the OS. Each OS will have an associated boot sector loader.)
I suspect that the NT boot sector was somehow corrupted. This code reads the NT boot.ini file and allows you to dual boot between DOS/NT. You can restore the NT boot sector. You'll need to make a set of (three) NT installation disks off of the NT CD. Boot to disk one, and insert disk two when prompted. Eventually you'll reach a menu asking if you want to install NT or fix a previously installed NT setup. Take the "fix" or "repair" option. I don't remember the exact set of menu options, but when I did it all of the directions seemed to be pretty clear. The whole process takes about 10 minutes tops. Good luck, Tony Richardson -----Original Message----- From: Abdelrazak Younes [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 1998 10:15 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: debian-user@lists.debian.org; younes Subject: Re: Problems with dual boot NT/linux >> First I thought that it was just because Debian has somehow installed >>something on the master boot record, so I booted dos with dos system >> floppy and I did "fdisk /MBR" in order to clear the MBR and I verified >> that my dos partion was OK; but I didn't work out. I also tried to >> remove the second hard-drive (/dev/sdb) but it still tells me : >> "Missing operationg system" > >Yes, I encouneterd something similar also. The reason I was unable to boot >NT was simple - somehow the bootable flag for /dev/sda1 partition was >erased. And the worse thing that after restoring it with linux fdisk, >I got another message: "invalid partition table". The fix was to make NT >(or DOS) to run it's own fdisk to resrtre the flag correctly. >fdisk /mbr does nothing, 'cause MBR is OK! try just starting fdisk >in dos and exit without chnaging anything. I tried that and it tells me : "Error reading fixed disk" But I still can read data on drive C: under DOS !! I also tried to toggle the bootable flag with linux fdisk and then try to launch dos fdisk again but it did the same : "Error reading fixed disk" Do you have an idear ? Abdel. -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .