I don't know what happened to my linux boot manager [[SOLVED]

[nkuruza]

I created a partition[16GB] and then installed PCLinuxOS. The Harddrive is 80GB. everything worked well. I competed set up steps 4 my development environment, Just yesterday I created another partition[21GB] and Installed Windows 7 on it, but when I restated the computer after windows setup finished, the computer just booted windows, my Linux Boot Manager was never given a chance. So, I put my LinuxCD back in and run booted PCLiunxOS from CD. I realized that windows installation had created a small partition[About 1GB]  for it boot settings. I moved the files from that partition and rebooted, The computer did not boot after that, it just wrote "Missing bootmgr". So I run my LiveCD again and then I tried to Setup boot system. And everything runs smooth but when I restart the computer and the new message I got was "Missing Operating System" and then I just delete that small partition which was created by windows but still no luck... please help, I don't want to install linux again coz its already installed and I don't wanna loose my development environment, it took me a lot of time and bandwith to put it together.

[Old-Polack]

I created a partition[16GB] and then installed PCLinuxOS. The Harddrive is 80GB. everything worked well. I competed set up steps 4 my development environment, Just yesterday I created another partition[21GB] and Installed Windows 7 on it, but when I restated the computer after windows setup finished, the computer just booted windows, my Linux Boot Manager was never given a chance. So, I put my LinuxCD back in and run booted PCLiunxOS from CD. I realized that windows installation had created a small partition[About 1GB]  for it boot settings. I moved the files from that partition and rebooted, The computer did not boot after that, it just wrote "Missing bootmgr". So I run my LiveCD again and then I tried to Setup boot system. And everything runs smooth but when I restart the computer and the new message I got was "Missing Operating System" and then I just delete that small partition which was created by windows but still no luck... please help, I don't want to install linux again coz its already installed and I don't wanna loose my development environment, it took me a lot of time and bandwith to put it together.

Standing rule, always install Windows first, then PCLinuxOS, or any other Linux. Windows will always replace grub with its own boot loader on a dual boot, single drive system, if it's installed after, or if any repairs are done to it.

You can get the PCLinuxOS installation back by following these instructions;

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,62786.msg508062.html#msg508062

Once that is accomplished, you need to restore the Windows boot partition to its previous state and add a boot stanza for it in your PCLinuxOS /boot/grub/menu.lst.

[nkuruza]

Thank you very much Old-Polack, it worked like magic, right now I am posting from HDD as opposed to LiveCD I was on earlier. Thanks a lot, you realy helped.

About the Windows Partition, I have lost the files that I had copied from the windows boot partition, and I have deleted the windows boot partition and merged it with the rest of the Data Partition.
is it possible to sort this problem out without having to install windows afresh?

[Old-Polack]

Thank you very much Old-Polack, it worked like magic, right now I am posting from HDD as opposed to LiveCD I was on earlier. Thanks a lot, you realy helped.

About the Windows Partition, I have lost the files that I had copied from the windows boot partition, and I have deleted the windows boot partition and merged it with the rest of the Data Partition.
is it possible to sort this problem out without having to install windows afresh?

If you don't know what files you removed, and have also removed the boot partition, I'd suggest you install Windows on a separate hard drive, and boot from the one with PCLinuxOS on it. This will keep Windows isolated so it can't damage the grub boot loader again. Once we see the partition table of the Windows hard drive we can give you a boot stanza for it, to copy into your /boot/grub/menu.lst.