This may be old news, but it also may save someone a lot of headaches.
This afternoon, I completed my normal chores in Vista and decided to reboot into Simply Mepis Linux which I am attempting to learn. (I have been using Easy BCD for at least a couple of years). I am currently quad booting Vista, 7, Mepis 8.0 and Mepis 8.5. My system has three SATA drives with the four OSs residing on two of the drives.
When I rebooted, Mepis simply refused to boot. I received a totally different login screen than normal and was rewarded with an error 17 (non-bootable partition--or something similar).
I found this strange since I had not installed any new software, had any power fluctuations, or done any incorrect shutdowns in Windows.
OK, I decide t use the live CD to boot into Linux. I inserted the CD and rebooted and the computer booted directly into Vista. That really got my attention.
Another attempted reboot resulted in the same situation.
I attempted a third reboot, and entered the BIOS setup. For some reason, the boot order was totally different than it should have been. The floppy drive (yes, I still have one) was now listed as the first boot drive and the drive containing Vista was second and one of my two DVD drives was third.
Now, this isn't like launching the space shuttle. I rearranged the boot order (from memory) and rebooted. Still no Linux. Now, I'm getting irritated. I rearrange the hard drive order again, and all is back to normal, now.
So where am I going with all this rambling. Glad you asked.
When operating multiple drives and multible operating systems in a computer, you cannot change the order of the drives after operating system installation nor can you change the cable connections without causing the whole system to go crazy. At least that has been my experience.
So, I copied the boot order onto a card and placed it in the bottom of my computer case (I have a large tower) for future occurances.
I have absolutely no (zero) idea or clue as to what caused the boot order to change between my shutdown this morning prior to work and the restart this afternoon after work.
I hope my story will help others who may experience a similar problem.
Jerry in Anchorage, Alaska
PS If this story is worthless, or inaccurate, Administrator please remove it and tell me so I can avoid looking like more of an idiot in the future.
This afternoon, I completed my normal chores in Vista and decided to reboot into Simply Mepis Linux which I am attempting to learn. (I have been using Easy BCD for at least a couple of years). I am currently quad booting Vista, 7, Mepis 8.0 and Mepis 8.5. My system has three SATA drives with the four OSs residing on two of the drives.
When I rebooted, Mepis simply refused to boot. I received a totally different login screen than normal and was rewarded with an error 17 (non-bootable partition--or something similar).
I found this strange since I had not installed any new software, had any power fluctuations, or done any incorrect shutdowns in Windows.
OK, I decide t use the live CD to boot into Linux. I inserted the CD and rebooted and the computer booted directly into Vista. That really got my attention.
Another attempted reboot resulted in the same situation.
I attempted a third reboot, and entered the BIOS setup. For some reason, the boot order was totally different than it should have been. The floppy drive (yes, I still have one) was now listed as the first boot drive and the drive containing Vista was second and one of my two DVD drives was third.
Now, this isn't like launching the space shuttle. I rearranged the boot order (from memory) and rebooted. Still no Linux. Now, I'm getting irritated. I rearrange the hard drive order again, and all is back to normal, now.
So where am I going with all this rambling. Glad you asked.
When operating multiple drives and multible operating systems in a computer, you cannot change the order of the drives after operating system installation nor can you change the cable connections without causing the whole system to go crazy. At least that has been my experience.
So, I copied the boot order onto a card and placed it in the bottom of my computer case (I have a large tower) for future occurances.
I have absolutely no (zero) idea or clue as to what caused the boot order to change between my shutdown this morning prior to work and the restart this afternoon after work.
I hope my story will help others who may experience a similar problem.
Jerry in Anchorage, Alaska
PS If this story is worthless, or inaccurate, Administrator please remove it and tell me so I can avoid looking like more of an idiot in the future.