Unable to boot WinXP or FC5 - Please help!

[king koiler]

Hello!

First of all, I'd like to point out that I am new to the Linux world and therefore not particalarly knowledgable. I have searched the forums and although there is a great deal of helpful information, I can't seem to find anything related to my exact problem...so here goes.

After wanting to give Linux a try for quite a while, I managed to obtain a copy of Fedora Core 5 on DVD which was included with the June 2006 issue of Lixux Magazine. So far, so good. Disclaimer: My computer is actually quite archaic!

My system information is shown below
Motherboard: Abit BE6
CPU: Intel PentiumIII 850MHz
RAM: 768MB
DVDROM: Pioneer DVD-114 (connected to IDE1 as Primary Master)
CDRW: HP CD-Writer+ 8200 (connected to IDE1 as Primary Slave)
HDD1: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8, 30.7GB (connected to IDE3 as Primary Slave, jumper=cable select, through Highpiont Technology Inc. HPT366 Ultra DMA 66 Controller on motherboard)
HDD2: Quantum Fireball Plus KA, 13.8GB (connected to IDE3 as Primary Slave, jumper=cable select, through Highpoint Technology Inc. HPT366 Ultra DMA 66 Controller on motherboard)
*Note: HDD1 shows as "SCSI Disk Device" in Windows Device Manager and HDD2 is normally not connected because it is a spare drive a had sitting around that I just installed for my Linux installation.

My system configuration is shown below
HDD1 (existing) has two partitions both formatted NTFS
c:\ Windows XP Professional SP2 and Program Files
d:\ data
HDD2 (recently added) has four partitions formatted ext3 using gparted-livecd-0.2.5-3
/boot
/ (root)
swap (formatted linux swap)
/home

sh-3.1# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/hde: 30.7 GB, 30750031872 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3738 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hde1 * 1 1875 15060906 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hde2 1876 3738 14964547+f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hde5 1876 3738 14964516 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/hde: 13.8 GB, 13858725888 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1684 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdf1 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hdf2 14 751 5927985 83 Linux
/dev/hdf3 752 946 1566337+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdf4 947 1684 5927985 83 Linux

sh-3.1# cat /boot/grub/grub.conf
#grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
#Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
#NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd1,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdf2
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hde
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.15-1.2054_FC5)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.img
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1


Now for the installation. I changed my BIOS boot sequence from "A,EXT,C" (EXT is UDMA) to "CDROM,A,C" and let the computer boot from the Fedora Core 5 DVD (media tested ok). Grub was installed to the MBR of /dev/hde (HDD1). All seemed to be going well and the install finished without errors. Great. So I remove the DVD and reboot the computer. I changed my BIOS boot sequence back to the original "A,EXT,C" at this point and let the computer boot. The splashimage displays and I cross my fingers since this is about my fifth install attempt. The menu times out and starts to boot Fedora Core, but then stops on a black sreen and displays the following:
loading grub stage2

Booting 'Fedora Core (2.6.15-1.2054_FC5)'

root (hd1,0)
Filesystem type is extfs, partition type 0x83
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
[Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1e00, size=0x16eb711
initrd /initrd-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.img
At this point this computer becomes unresponsive and the hard disk drive remains active while doing nothing except for making some strange noises every couple of seconds as if it is seeking data. Uh-oh! I'm not liking what I'm hearing and not seeing, so I press the reset button on the case and hope for the best. The computer reboots and this time when the grub splashimage is on the screen I press the "arrow down" key to switch the boot from the default to Windows XP. No Dice. So now I can't boot Fedora or Windows XP.

For the sake of being able to have a functioning computer again, I booted from my Windows CD, started the recovery console and used the "fixmbr" command. Still no dice. After rebooting, the Windows XP splashimage was displayed, but was very dim (about a third of the usual brightness) and the computer became unresponsive again while the hard drive remained active doing nothing again. Uh-oh! I pressed and held the power button on the case and waited for the computer to shutdown. Once it was powered down, I disconnected the power from HDD2, and tried to boot again. This time Windows booted successfully.

So basically I am back where I started many, many, many hours ago with a computer that has one hard drive and Windows XP installed, but no Linux. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I have tried re-installing Fedora numerous times after trying various suggestions I have read in these forums and still cannot seem to get a functioning dual boot. Thanks in advance.

[h3rman]

I'm not a genious in computing either. But I'll just give my advice anyway ;)
It might be an idea to download and burn a Knoppix CD ( http://knoppix.org ), or maybe Kanotix is better nowadays they say ( http://kanotix.org ), change your BIOS setting again to CDROM-first, and boot from that CD (it's a live CD, so nothing goes wrong). Before doing so, while in Windows try to get yourself an idea of all the partitions, and their sizes, that you have on the computer. Then use the Knoppix/Kanotix hard disk folder to check out all partitions and their sizes and names and contents. If you write all of them down, you'll know in case you would be installing FC5 again.
UC The thing I think went wrong is that in the Grub.conf file, it is mentioned that you have a boot partition, but it says "boot=/dev/hde". In your partition table it seems that hde is meant for Windows, and you seem to want hdf to have all the Linux files. It is not really a default procedure to create a separate /boot partition, although it is of course possible.
So I think you could reinstall FC5, and make sure the way Anaconda partitions your Linux part is a little more straight forward. All you really need is swap and the rest, so 2 partitions, or maybe a separate / (root) partition, swap, and the rest /home. But if you just dont separate /boot from the rest at hdf, it would boot well I think.
Now that you let Windows perform a "fix master boot record", the simplest option is a fresh reinstall of Fedora, since whatever /boot there was may now be gone at hde.
regards, h3rman