R Paddock wrote:
>
> I recently received a used computer with its one hard
> drive partitioned in two parts. I believe drive C has
> always had Windows98 and D had Linux on it.
> I know that Linux was removed and D was formated just
> before I got it.
> It worked fine until I turned it on on day and then my
> problem started.
> When turned on it shows a Hewlett Packard logo screen,
> then screen goes black (normal so far). It then prints
> "LI" in upper left and does nothing after that. It
> used to print "LILO".
>
> I read in a linux book about start messaages and
> errors that 'LILO' means that every part of LILO has
> been loaded successfully and 'LI' means "The second
> step has been invoked but could not be started.This
> can be due to faulty disk geometry or to moving
> /boot/boot.b without reinstalling LILO"

Yes, that's exactly what it means.  The linux partition was deleted,
without deleting LILO.  Get a win98 boot disk, and run fdisk /mbr from
the a:\ prompt.  That should give you a new master boot record, and
allow you to boot.

As far as the problem below goes, I'm not sure what to tell you.  It may
be a corrupt disk, I don't know.  Try the fdisk /mbr, and see what you
can do after that.  If you still get a fouled-up filesystem, probably
the best bet is to repartition and re-install an OS.

Glen Sagers



> Useing a boot disk to get to DOS I have learned D
> seems to be OK but C (which contains nearly everything
> on the computer) shows one file and no directories.
> The file has a name using symbols instead of letters,
> is 2.3GB in size, and is dated 00-00-21 1:51am. It
> also shows free space of appox 2GB which is about 2GB
> short of what it should show.
> I can't read anything off of C.
> Can someone please give me an idea of what might be
> the problem or where to start looking.

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