Prev: problem with firefox on fedora linux
Next: Linux's approaching Achilles' heal
From: CSP on 15 Nov 2007 21:40
Hello,

I have a desktop which has 3 operating systems (XP,RHES,Sun Solaris x86)
installed on it. Recently, I lost my XP because of a nasty Virus and
then had to install all the Operating systems again....what a pain and
time taking process. Now I am looking for a best way to backup the MBR
and all the Partitions unto a NFS drive or create a DVD which would
allow me to get back to where I before a crash...something like a
Recovery CD which is usually provided by desktop vendors. Is this
possible. I would really appreciate any help or pointers to information.

Thanks
Chandra

P.S. I apologize, I am posting this question to three groups to get to
wider audience.
From: CSP on 16 Nov 2007 17:36
sdfmoon(a)gmail.com wrote:
> On Nov 15, 6:40 pm, CSP <C...(a)home.net> wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I have a desktop which has 3 operating systems (XP,RHES,Sun Solaris x86)
>> installed on it. Recently, I lost my XP because of a nasty Virus and
>> then had to install all the Operating systems again....what a pain and
>> time taking process. Now I am looking for a best way to backup the MBR
>> and all the Partitions unto a NFS drive or create a DVD which would
>> allow me to get back to where I before a crash...something like a
>> Recovery CD which is usually provided by desktop vendors. Is this
>> possible. I would really appreciate any help or pointers to information.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Chandra
>>
>> P.S. I apologize, I am posting this question to three groups to get to
>> wider audience.
>
> How did you manage to have win screw up your other OSs. In any case,
> the proper way to do this, assuming you actually want just the
> recovery DVDs, is to create 3 8GB partitions, for each OS. Then
> install the OSs on the 8 GB partitions. Then just DD the partitions on
> to 8GB DVDs. There you go, all done.

When I reinstalled XP, it overwrote the MBR and that's end of all other OSs.
Say, if I had partitioned 3 partitions with 3.8G each and install three
separate Operating Systems, can you please help me understand as to how
it be possible for me to restore on OS, say for example XP.

Appreciate your time and help.

Regards
Chandra
From: Bit Twister on 16 Nov 2007 17:48
On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 22:36:55 GMT, CSP wrote:
>
> When I reinstalled XP, it overwrote the MBR and that's end of all other OSs.
> Say, if I had partitioned 3 partitions with 3.8G each and install three
> separate Operating Systems, can you please help me understand as to how
> it be possible for me to restore on OS, say for example XP.

Micro$not overwites the MBR. Call Bill Gates and complain.

Had that happened to me, I would insert my distribution's cd/dvd,
create mount point for my linux install partition, mount it, chroot
/wherever, create any mount points needed by the bootloader, mount
them, then run the boot loader's install commands.

From: VWWall on 16 Nov 2007 18:00
CSP wrote:

> When I reinstalled XP, it overwrote the MBR and that's end of all other
> OSs.

You should have kept a copy of the MBR. With only three partitions it
would have info about all of them. Re-writing the MBR would have
recovered the three systems. dd will do it easily.

> Say, if I had partitioned 3 partitions with 3.8G each and install three
> separate Operating Systems, can you please help me understand as to how
> it be possible for me to restore on OS, say for example XP.

You would have to restore whatever you were using for multi-boot, from
your back-up.

Virg Wall
From: VWWall on 16 Nov 2007 18:02
CSP wrote:

> When I reinstalled XP, it overwrote the MBR and that's end of all other
> OSs.

You should have kept a copy of the MBR. With only three partitions it
would have info about all of them. Re-writing the MBR would have
recovered the three systems. dd will do it easily.

> Say, if I had partitioned 3 partitions with 3.8G each and install three
> separate Operating Systems, can you please help me understand as to how
> it be possible for me to restore on OS, say for example XP.

You would have to restore whatever you were using for multi-boot, from
your back-up.

Virg Wall
 |  Next  |  Last
Pages: 1 2
Prev: problem with firefox on fedora linux
Next: Linux's approaching Achilles' heal