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error loading booter

user2

By user2,
in OSx86 10.4 (Tiger)

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user2
user2
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Posted

Ok, I somehow screwed up my boot loader trying to make a usb drive boot. Now all I get is "error loading booter on my primary drive. I thought no problem I'll search the forum and find an answer but no such luck. So now I have to eat crow, look like an idiot and ask for assistance. Anyone have the answer?

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shifuimam
shifuimam
Posted
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If you're using the Windows boot.ini method of booting, try this:

 

Boot off your Windows XP CD.

Select "R" to enter the recovery console.

Windows will load a command prompt style screen.

Select the number for your Windows installation (it will probably be 1).

You'll see [C:\WINDOWS\] on the screen.

Type FIXMBR.

Answer yes to any prompts.

Type FIXBOOT.

Answer yes to any prompts.

Type REBOOT and hit enter.

 

Either eject the CD before your computer fully reboots, or don't press a key when you see the "press any key to boot from cd...." prompt.

 

This will basically rewrite your boot sector with the Windows bootloader, and fix the master boot record.

 

If you're using LILO or GRUB, I have no idea what to tell you.

 

FWIW, this is also a good way to fix a FUBAR multiboot installation, so that you can, at the very least, get back into Windows...from there you can use PartitionMagic to reformat everything besides Windows and start over.

user2
user2
Posted
  • Author
Posted
If you're using the Windows boot.ini method of booting, try this:

 

Boot off your Windows XP CD.

Select "R" to enter the recovery console.

Windows will load a command prompt style screen.

Select the number for your Windows installation (it will probably be 1).

You'll see [C:\WINDOWS\] on the screen.

Type FIXMBR.

Answer yes to any prompts.

Type FIXBOOT.

Answer yes to any prompts.

Type REBOOT and hit enter.

 

Either eject the CD before your computer fully reboots, or don't press a key when you see the "press any key to boot from cd...." prompt.

 

This will basically rewrite your boot sector with the Windows bootloader, and fix the master boot record.

 

If you're using LILO or GRUB, I have no idea what to tell you.

 

FWIW, this is also a good way to fix a FUBAR multiboot installation, so that you can, at the very least, get back into Windows...from there you can use PartitionMagic to reformat everything besides Windows and start over.

 

Thanks for the reply but I'm not dual booting. I just f'd the boot loader and don't know how to fix it. I can get into my GUI but I have to leave the install dvd in the drive.

shifuimam
shifuimam
Posted
Posted

The FIXMBR and FIXBOOT commands will rewrite your master boot record to boot from windows only. It puts everything back to factory/Microsoft defaults.

 

I have had supreme difficulty getting OS X to boot on my own machine (Dell PowerEdge 400SC with a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 HT), using both GRUB (Suse 10) and mucking with boot.ini (XP). GRUB refuses to recognize the partition as bootable or even formatted with a valid filesytem...

 

You can try WinGRUB (look it up on the OSx86project wiki), but that's the best I can tell you at this point.

 

I don't want to be discouraging about getting responses, but my own posts for help have gone largely ignored. I still haven't figured out the GRUB 13 error (which {censored} about my partition not being valid), and I'm going to do a full reinstall this weekend.

 

If that doesn't work, I suppose I'll just go back Suse/XP and leave OSx86 out of the picture, as much as I don't want to do that...

totokan
totokan
Posted
Posted

See, I can get osx to work, but only through VMWare. Then it works fine. My boot.ini is set up to let me choose, and that works. but it's only the hd that osx is installed on that's f-'d up... it's the booting part, as the partition is set to active, and I made sure that I fixed the MBR. See, the drive originally had GRUB on it, but it never worked. So I fixed THAT by using the acronis disc director to copy the mbr from my windows drive to the new OSX drive. That worked, but after I installed photoshop CS, and added another user, I turned it off. It never booted again. The next thing I did was try re-installing through VMWare, which worked! I could finally boot OSX and use it! But, it only works if I open it through VMWare, if I try booting off the boot menu, no go.

schale01
schale01
Posted
Posted
So I fixed THAT by using the acronis disc director to copy the mbr from my windows drive to the new OSX drive.

 

This is probably what caused your problem. You have yet to elaborate on how you have set up partitions, what booting method you are currently using, and other such details. Troubleshooting the problem without this information can be difficult. Please post this next time.

 

With that said it sounds like you are using the boot.ini to chain0 dual boot method. From my experience this method is the most unpredictable booting method I've tried. I've gotten it to work before but recreating it and keeping it working has been difficult.

 

Acronis Disk Director Suite w/ OS Selector has worked well for me and seems to be very predictable. I like it but it seems to add a lot of unneeded files to your system.

 

My now prefered booting method now is just letting Darwin handle it. I just edited

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

by adding/editing these tags:

<key>Timeout</key>

<string>8</string>

 

This pauses the booting and allows you to choose which partition to boot off of. All you have to do is have the Partition with Darwin(OSX) set to active and it works.

 

The next thing I did was try re-installing through VMWare, which worked! I could finally boot OSX and use it! But, it only works if I open it through VMWare, if I try booting off the boot menu, no go.

 

Like I said before the chain0 method of booting has never worked consistantly. At least for me. If this is where you are at. I would set your partition to boot first from OSX (set it active) and let darwin do the work. Or if you like you could install Arconis, either has worked fine for me.

totokan
totokan
Posted
Posted

Actually, I'm not using the chain0 method. I just set it up so if I want to, I can. The OsX86 partiton is on a different drive than windows, so I use the bios's boot select menu to choose OsX PATA HD or Windows SATA HD.

The fact of the matter is, the problem stems from either the MBR or something I don't comprehend. It boots with VMWare, which means the install went ok, it's just the boot sector where I'm having problems. I explained all I know about how I fixed the disc's MBR, and IT WORKED THAT WAY. That's the other point. The drive's MBR was fixed, but it screwed itself up somehow, and now I get error loading booter.

schale01
schale01
Posted
Posted
The fact of the matter is, the problem stems from either the MBR or something I don't comprehend. It boots with VMWare, which means the install went ok, it's just the boot sector where I'm having problems. I explained all I know about how I fixed the disc's MBR, and IT WORKED THAT WAY. That's the other point. The drive's MBR was fixed, but it screwed itself up somehow, and now I get error loading booter.

 

It sounds like the partition type may have gotten reset to something other than AF. I had this problem when I messed with my partitions before. Fixed it with Arconis Disk director by just changing the partition type.

 

What was the specific error that you recieved?

  • 3 months later...
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