grub drive confusion

[g-banjo]

I'm sorry if the answer to this is somewhere already - I'm sure it is but I'm afraid I don't know how to relate all the info here to my particular case.
I have been using a dual boot Ubuntu/XP system for some time - the Linux for general internet and communications and the XP with all unnecessary services disabled as a DAW. The two OSs have been sharing an IDE drive and I've been using two SATA drives for recording.
A couple of days ago I decided to do a clean install of my Linux system (because of a messed up Firefox from an Adblock-plus update) and thought it would be the ideal opportunity to check out Mint7.
I was having some difficulty in installing Mint so I disconnected the two SATA drives to simplify things and to protect my data then installed Mint fairly easily.
My problem is now that I can boot through GRUB into Mint but not into XP when my SATA drives are disconnected and I can boot into XP but not Mint when they are connected. Obviously I don't want to be connecting and disconnecting my SATA every time I want to change OS.
I assume I need to edit GRUB but have no idea what to change it to. Any pointers?

[g-banjo]

I see quite a few people reading this but no replies. Please bear in mind that I have no way of knowing if this is because it is a stupid question or a difficult one.
I tried all sorts of grub > things gleaned from this forum but eventually gave up and reinstalled Mint with the SATA drives connected.
Ended installation with an error message:
Executing grub-install (hd0) failed.
So I now have the same situation (Can boot into Mint if no SATA drives connected).
I'm afraid I don't have the time to learn all this stuff about grub - I just need to get a dual system working. I really enjoyed Ubuntu 9.04 and like what I see of Mint but I'm afraid I'm being pushed back to XP - I just need to get on with some work.

[awong]

Are you able to control which drive boots up with the computer bios or a bootup menu (my Dell has this feature)? I do this because I get a Grub loading Error 2 message if I don't.

It's a hassle but it works for me (maybe I'll post for help later - I almost ruined my NTFS filesystem trying to fix Grub - thank goodness for TestDisk).

[g-banjo]

I don't think so.
Anyway, both operating systems are on the same IDE drive.

[g-banjo]

Is there some way of getting grub to scan the drives, find operating systems and put them in the menu?

[Aging Technogeek]

Check out this thread. The problem is similar to yours so the solution may be what you need.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... =sudo+grub

[g-banjo]

Thanks Ageing Techy, from that I got "sudo fdisk -l" which I've run from Live CD.

First let me just recap my problem:
With my SATA drives disconnected I can boot through grub into Mint but not into XP.
With my SATA drives connected I can boot through grub into XP but not into Mint.

I ran sudo fdisk -l

and got:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 969021 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2f4ec6d4

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2 964175 485943696 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda2 964176 969021 2442384 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 2 963824 485766760+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 963825 964175 176872+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf87a7723

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 30401 244196001 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 164.6 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc0993e0e

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 10199 81923436 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdc2 10200 20023 78911280 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 10200 19617 75650053+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdc6 19618 20023 3261163+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

The last one - /dev/sdc - is my IDE boot disk
Any clues?

[g-banjo]

Okay, enough. Now I'm not getting into Mint even with the SATAs disconnected. I've decided to start again. It is a real pain having to reinstall my XP system and go through the process of cleaning out all its unnecessary junk then install all my music software. It's a couple of days really. But I figure this is just a mess and I'd be better to start over.
Thanks for your interest.

[g-banjo]

Right, I installed Mint from the CD, using the whole drive and deleting the previous Linux and XP partitions. Got through the installation fine - rebooted and got Grub error 17!
I figure it's a drive order problem:
If we call the BIOS order A,B,C
Grub is seeing it as B,C,A
What can I do about this?

[g-banjo]

And now?
I re-ordered the drives in BIOS to match Grub's perception of reality and reinstalled Mint.
Still Error 17.
Am I in the wrong forum here?
Should I be looking for someone who knows about Grub rather than Mint?