HailandKill

Sorry to be a bore.. I realise that there a rather a lot of threads on this general topic, but my problem seems to be the opposite of everyone elses: I'm having problems with a dual boot with Fedora Core 4 and Windows XP. I've been with google and I've found much advice, but still; no avail. The GRUB interface comes up, and I can happily boot into FC4. But, on choosing WinXP GRUB simply goes Code: rootnoverify (hd0, 5)chainloader +1boot Then it hangs and I never get the Windows Loader screen. I added the boot part to the grub.conf file, but it does exactly the same with or without the boot line. My hard drives are as follows: Code: /dev/hda hda1 start:1 end:13 Size:102 type:ext3 hda2 start:14 end: 5004 size: 39151 type: Extended hda5 start:14 end: 5004 size: 39151 type: ntfs start:5004 end:5005 size:8 type Free space/dev/sda (an ntfs hard drive not being used by either O/S)/dev/sdb sdb1 start:1 end:131 size:1024 linux-swap sdb2 start:132 end:5005 size:38233 ext3 Windows is on the primary hard drive, hda, and FC4 is on sdb. The device.map is as follows Code: # this map was gernerated by anaconda(fd0) /dev/fd0(hd0) /dev/hda(hd1) /dev/sdb Finally the current grub.conf Code: # stuff#boot=/dev/hdadefault=2timeout=10splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gzhiddenmenutitle Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4smp root (hd0,0) kernal /*directory*/ rhgb quiet initrd /*directory*title Fedora Core-up root(hd0,0) kernal /*directory*/ rhgb quiet initrd /*directory*title WinXP rootnoverify (hd0,5) chainloader +1 boot All boot info (i.e. /boot and windows' boot.ini) is held on the hd0/hda hard drive. Yet, Windows refuses to boot, or GRUB isn't doing things correctly.

Right, I actually have managed to fix it. I got rid of the Windows partition with QTParted in Fedora Core, then I unplugged all of my hard drives but hda, just as a precaution, booted up in windows and reinstalled it. Then, I booted up with FC4 and intalled that. When it came to configuring GRUB, I told it not to install on the MBR. On the first boot, this unsurprisingly, went straight into Windows. In XP I fiddled with boot.ini in an attempt to get the NTLDR to boot Linux. However, I needed to get some GRUB info. So, I rebooted and changed to boot from my linux hard drive (i.e. I changed the boot sequence). This didn't work, but I booted up in linix recovery and used Code: grub-install --rechecl /dev/hda I then went back to my original boot seqeunce and low and behold I had GRUB and the choice of FC4 or XP, in both cases they boot. It happened by accident, and was probably a long way of just installing GRUB to the MBR... But now it works.

Ok. Considering I've royally fecked things now... I might as well start again. Is there a good guide to follow anywhere?

I haven't changed the boot sequence in the bios, no. This is actually the second attempt and getting a dual boot to work. Originally I did have Windows and Linux or completely seperate hard drives, there was no /boot on the windows hard drive. This however just caused windows to boot. So, I found this new guide... the one I followed. Windows was installed before Fedora Core. I cannot view ntfs file systems with fedora, unfortunately. I tried to update the kernel using an rpm from http://www.linux-ntfs.org/ but that made things turn for the worse. I had booted up in Knoppix before hand, looked at hda5 and couldn't find the boot.ini file... so it is possible that got deleted somewhere along the lines when I installed fedora core. Attempting to boot a Windows XP install CD (I'm considering just starting again. I won't loose anything) seems to fail now as well, is that the linux partions causing that?

I've tried changing it with 1 through 5. All of them have exactly the same results. Would GRUB just hang if it couldn't find a boot.ini? Or would it complain? [Edited by HailandKill on 2006-03-16 19:50:28]

I was following this guide: http://www.absoluteinsight.net/1397 And it's very well possible that I fecked the partitions... hda is two partitions. The first physical one, hda1, contains /boot. The second, hda2, is the Windows partion. sda hasn't got any O/S on, or any vital boot infomation. I don't think GRUB takes any notice of it. Which is good. At the moment it's a ntfs hard drive with some music and backup on. sdb is again two partitions. The first physical, sdb1, is the linux-swap while sdb2 contains is the rest of the linux root. GRUB will therefore be located on hda. I think. I installed Windows first but made a 100mb partition physically before the windows installation. On this small partition I mounted /boot. I mounted the rest of FC4 on the SATA hard drive as can be seen HERE Code: # /sbin/fdisk -lDisk /dev/hda: 41.1 GB, 41174138880 bytes255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 5005 cylindersUnits = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System/dev/hda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux/dev/hda2 14 5004 40090207+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)/dev/hda5 14 5004 40090176 7 HPFS/NTFSDisk /dev/sda: 300.0 GB, 300090728448 bytes255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36483 cylindersUnits = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytesThis doesn't look like a partition tableProbably you selected the wrong device. Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System/dev/sda1 ? 13578 119522 850995205 7 HPFS/NTFSPartition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary./dev/sda2 ? 45382 79243 271987362 74 UnknownPartition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary./dev/sda3 ? 10499 10499 0 65 Novell Netware 386Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary./dev/sda4 167628 167631 25817+ 0 EmptyPartition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.Partition table entries are not in disk orderDisk /dev/sdb: 41.1 GB, 41174138880 bytes255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 5005 cylindersUnits = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System/dev/sdb1 * 1 131 1052226 82 Linux swap / Solaris/dev/sdb2 132 5005 39150405 83 LinuxDisk /dev/sdc: 262 MB, 262144000 bytes16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 1000 cylindersUnits = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System/dev/sdc1 * 1 1000 255983+ 6 FAT16Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings: phys=(998, 15, 32) logical=(999, 15, 31) I had a USB stick in when getting the fdisk info, hence the last drive.