Dual Booting Problems

[Paul L]

My system uses 4 SATA discs which Mint recognises as sda, sdb, sdc and sdd.

I want to install my system as
sda - Mint 6
sdb - Back-up data
sdc - Windows XP
sdd - Back-up data

I first installed Windows to sdc (Windows recognised this as C:)

I then installed Mint 6 to sda

Mint runs OK; Windows was not picked up by GRUB.

Having reviewed the forums I edited GRUB by adding

title Windows XP Pro
root (hd2,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot

Mint runs OK; Windows says "starting" but nothing happens

I cannot run Windows from the BIOS - I assume that the Windows boot loader has been superceded by GRUB

Am I missing something obvious here?

Any help gratefully received

[Fred]

Paul L,

Try the below as your Windows XP boot stanza and see if that doesn't work better for you.

title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd2,0)
makeactive
map (hd0) (hd2)
map (hd2) (hd0)
chainloader +1

Fred

[Paul L]

Thanks for the reply Fred.

I tried your suggestion and received the response that the NTLDR could not be found. I understand that this is a boot loader for Windows. Does this mean that I need to reinstall Windows or can I get round it.

I've been using Mint for a couple of years now and never come across this problem before. I uses PATA discs in the past and have only recently moved to SATA - is this likely to be the problem?

Many thanks

Paul

[Fred]

Paul L,

No, you should not have to install Windows again. Leave the Windows boot stanza I gave you above in the menu.lst. Go to the url below and download and burn a Live cd iso called "SuperGrub." Boot with this cd in the cd drive and tell it to fix the Windows boot. It will put the Windows boot back in its' original, virgin state.

Then reboot and use the Supergrub disk to boot into your Linux install. Don't try to fix the Linux install with SuperGrub. Just use it to boot Linux with. When your desktop comes up open a terminal and type:

sudo grub

root (hd0,0)

setup (hd0)

quit

I am assuming your Linux root partition is on the first partition of the first hard drive. Close the terminal and reboot. It should come up with the Grub menu. You should be able to select Windows or Linux to boot.

Fred

http://download.linux-live-cd.org/Super ... sgd/cdrom/

[Paul L]

Thanks Fred.

I tried what you suggested and got the same NTLDR error.

I took out my SATA drives and reinstalled my PATA drives - these have ALWAYS worked fine - until now. GRUB does not recognise Windows. I added WIndows to the menu.lst and it lists Windows on boot. However, when I click on it I get a report "Starting up" and then the machine hangs.

I'm guessing that installing a new motherboard may have had something to do with this problem as the same two PATA drives worked before.

This is really frustrating - any ideas?

[Fred]

Paul L,

I notice that you have your Windows install on sdc. Can you physically rearrange your drives so Windows can be on the 1st drive, sda? Windows likes to be on the first drive so let it have its' way.

You can then use supergrub to fix it so it will boot once again. The easiest thing to do at that point, if you haven't done a lot of customization, would be to re-install Linux and let it take the mbr of the now first drive and see how that works out for you.

Fred

[Paul L]

I disconnected all but one of my drives and installed Windows to this.

I then added my second drive and installed Mint. When I rebooted all worked OK

I then added the two data drives. All works well.

I'm happy again and can sleep at night!

Thanks Fred for your help on this - it's great to know that there's alwaus someone out there willing to help.

Paul L