UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Ok i am running Linux, or rather was. I can not longer do anything. This was a dns server amoungst other things.
It will no longer boot.
I have used a startup disk, but how can i recover the OS?
I need help and urgently.
Please someone

thanks

Do you know why it won't boot? Does it give an error? If not, how far along does it get?

Once we figure out what's wrong with it, hopefully you'll be able to repair the system from the boot disk.

BTW, do you have current back-ups?

unfortunately no backups!!!! yes i know
Ok so tuen on the machine no boot disk or system drive insert boot disk.
So we insert the floppy disk and it boots.
login as root password xxxx
here we have a minimal kernal and thats it.
All commnds are in /usr/man!!
we have tried a few things but to no avail.
help

cheers

Hmm... Is this the only operating system on the machine?

You may be able to (bear with me, I haven't done this in a long time...) use LILO on the floppy to boot your hard drive. First off, make a copy of your boot disk - work on the copy, and keep the original safe. You can either pass boot-time parameters to it, or (this may be easier) boot the disk, and edit the /etc/lilo.conf file. You should add a line similar to the following:
root = /dev/hda1
(Or wherever your root partition is). Don't forget to run /sbin/lilo to commit your changes before rebooting!

Read <a href="http://www.control-escape.com/lilo-cfg.html"><strong>this</strong></a>, and see if any of this helps... then, hold your breath and try booting your disk via the floppy... If that work, you can try to re-install your boot-loader (LILO) on the disk...

Let us know if that works, and what else you did to correct the situation. I hope that I've at least gotten you on the right track...