Linux Community Magazine

The generic boot loader in Linux operating systems is the LiLo (short for LInux LOader). Using LiLo as the boot loader, you can boot the Linux system using any boot device such as hard disk, USB, etc. It is a very useful component that can either be placed in the MBR (Master Boot Record) or in the boot partition of your system. At times, you find that your system is unable to start displaying random error messages. There is quite a possibility that corruption in LiLo is the most prominent reason behind this. In such cases, you should take every suitable step to perform data recovery of Linux system. If none of the methods succeed, then you should use a third-party Linux data recovery software to do so.

Let us assume a scenario in which you have a Linux system, which is not starting when you do so. The following error message is displayed on the screen:

"The BIOS failed to properly initialize the disk controller. You should control the BIOS setup parameters. A warm boot might help too. (Boot a rescue disc and rerun LILO.)"

Cause:

The most possible cause of this erroneous situation is that the descriptor table is corrupt or damaged.

A Linux-based hard disk is divided into different blocks that is further managed into block groups. The description of these group blocks is contained by a group block descriptor. In short, the descriptor table contains the index table of all the group block descriptors.

Resolution:

To resolve this problem, you can try out the following methods:

* Check and verify the disk parameters in the BIOS (Basic Input/Output Section) of your Linux system.* After this, you should reinstall the LiLo after formatting the Linux system. Having said that, you should make sure that you have the updated backup of all your valuable data, before reinstalling the Linux system.* Run fsck to fix any file system related errors.

However, if the backup is not updated you would not want to risk the existing files by formatting the system. In such cases, Linux Recovery tool comes for your rescue that recovers data from Linux systems. Such Linux recovery tools are very simple to use that require few clicks to recover the inaccessible data without damaging the existing contents.

The best Linux recovery tool in the business is Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery that recovers lost or inaccessible data from Linux systems. Capable of extracting data from Ext4, Ext3, Ext2, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 file systems, this ext2 recovery software works on several kinds of hard disks such as SATA, EIDE, SCSI, IDE, etc. This ext3 recovery utility performs data recovery of Linux systems on Windows systems including Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and 2000.