Okay, I’m primarly a windows user but I’ve i’ve attempted to put linux on my system off and on with various distributions for a while now, and althought I’ve had some partial success’s there’s always been some problem that’s kept me from being able to use it. Any way, because of that I’ve been booting my computer with LILO for a while now. Well, the last kind of linux I attempted to install fucked up royally, and when I tried to reboot my computer lilo would would print “LI” (as apposed to “LILO”) and then freeze. And that’s it. I’ve been using windows off of a boot disk for a while now.
Today, I re-installed windows. And all went well, until the rebooting phase. No LILO error this time, instead my computer gives me a notice in dos that says “Your system is still in DOS mode. Would you like to restart in windows? [Y,N]”. If I press yes, the computer reboots and goes right back to the error. If I say no, it prints “You are still in DOS mode. Either exit the program you are running or type WIN again to return to windows.”
I don’t know what program it’s talking about, and typing WIN only brings up the same error. Through fidling with boot disks and crap for a couple of hours I managed to complete the windows installation, but I’m still stuck with boot disks!
I’ve tried rebooting, I’ve tried “fdisk /mbr” and half a million other things. At least my computer boots on it’s own now, but it still won’t go into windows. Can anybody help me? Please!!!
Note: I have no knowledge of the linux OS and I don’t know what “LILO” is but if your intent is to get a stand alone, properly booting Windows OS going is appears as though you have some partition issues that need to be resolved.
If the aforesaid is your intent you need to scrub the disk down to one clean primary DOS boot partition. Using fdisk get rid of all the other extended and non-DOS partitions then set one primary DOS partion as the boot (and main) partition. If you are using a disk overlay utility to allow your system to handle a larger disk than it’s BIOS could normally accept make sure this overlay is also removed as part of the main disk scub then re-install it if necessary.
Once the disk is cleaned per above re-initialize it in the BIOS and format. Unless your problem is caused by some non-standard IDE BIOS setting you are choosing this should solve your problem.
I don’t personally endorse a lot of software but PM 6.0 is an exception. You should also get Partiton Magic 6.0 as this will make your Win/Linux etc booting options a lot smoother and will potentially solve most of your dual boot problems. It’s a great program.
http://www.partitionmagic.com/partitionmagic/
"PartitionMagic, the world’s leading hard-drive partitioning software for desktop systems, allows you to safely and easily create, resize and merge partitions on your hard drive without destroying data. PartitionMagic helps organize and protect your data, run multiple operating systems, convert file system types and fix partition table errors. Other uses include:
Safely manage multiple operating systems
Organize and protect the information on your hard drive
Includes easy step-by-step wizards to create partitioning tasks
Ability to view pending operations before implementing them
Flexibility to convert from one file system or partition type to another
Includes support for FAT, FAT32, Linux ext 2, Linux SWAP, NTFS, and HPFS partitions
Product Benefits "
etc
thanks, astro, but that’s not quite what I’m looking for. I got the partition problem fixed, eventually. I was using partitionmagic for a while but that programs requires that the computer be rebooted for it’s changes to take effect, and I couldn’t reboot my computer :-/ but that’s all taken care of now.
The problem is with windows. For some unkown reason, my windows thinks that it’s supposed to be in DOS mode everytime it boots, and it’s not letting me boot into windows
You might want to check msdos.sys in c:\
;SYS
[Paths]
WinDir=C:\WINDOWS
WinBootDir=C:\WINDOWS
HostWinBootDrv=C
[Options]
BootMulti=1
BootGUI=1
DoubleBuffer=1
AutoScan=1
etc…
Pay attention to
BootMulti=1
BootGUI=1
make sure they are = 1
yeah, they both equal 1
i wish i could figure out what’s telling windows it’s in DOS mode 
I’m not sure about the “DOS mode” problem, but as far as getting just “LI” when LILO (linux loader) starts up, it’s pretty simple: Windows changes the MBR so that LILO doesn’t recognize it, and thinks there’s a boot sector virus. Apparently “I only see ‘LI’ when LILO boots” is the error code for that situation. Unfortunately, it’s been quite some time since I attempted to do a dual boot, so I can’t remember how to get around it. Hopefully that will get you started, if you’re still working on that problem.
One thought that just occurred to me: are you sure your Windows partition is FAT? I don’t know what would happen if it weren’t, but it seems like a possible cause. Good luck, at any rate.
I’ve already gotten the LILO problem fixed, but thanks any ways, and my windows partition is FAT32
The new problem is that windows seems to think that it’s running in DOS mode every time I boot. Imagine rebooting into DOS mode and then being stuck there. I’ve tried normal reboots and shutting down to see if it would reset whatever flag is sending it into DOS mode when it boots, but to no avail. I don’t know what the problem is, I’ve already re-installed twice
You might try this:
Boot into native DOS, at the prompt type “fdisk/mbr” (no quotes)
Then boot linux with your boot disk and restore LILO:
at the linux prompt type:
vmlinuz(z not x)root=/dev/hdxx(where xx is the partition containing linux root, something like hda1)
So, the linux syntax would be like this: (no quotes)
“vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1” then hit ENTER.
then type “/sbin/lilo” hit ENTER
This restores the master boot record and restores LILO.