Fedora Test XP dual boot

[z1xq]

Is there any known way to dual boot XP and Fedora Test? After Installing Fedora it makes XP unbootable by any method. I edited grub, used another boot loader, and every other suggestion I could find. Even if I do not install grub to the MBR it does the same thing. I also tried installing it to a separate hard disk and write the boot record to the /dev/hdb instead of /dev/hda, but it was a total no-go. Also the GAG boot Loader will not under any circumstances boot this operating system, and I think this issue is related to the XP problem. There must be some way around this. Please help.

[sailor]

it sounds to me like you may installed over your win xp...the hda is the first harddrive (most likey where you have winxp)...did you make a partition before installing?...did you manually partition disk for FC when prompted during the install?...

you can fix the master boot record by booting the PC with you Winxp cdrom....and once all has loaded, select 'R' for recovery
at the prompt type "fixmbr"....you should be able to re-boot to Win XP...

[z1xq]

I made separate partitions for all my OSs. I have been using Linux with Windows dual boots for over 5 years. It is a matter of Windows refusing to boot no matter what partition or grub layout I use. This conclusion is the result of over 10 separate installs of test 3 and XP. I can put another linux on with it as long as I put the other Linux in first. Fedora test will only load with it's own grub, but it will load other Linux. BUT it will not load XP no matter what, and another linux' grub will not load fedora test. I have no prob with Fedora 1 just the test. Has anyone encountered this and figured it out? The fixboot and fixmbr from XP disc do not work. I have to overwrite the master boot record with a pattern of 0s in order to reinstall windows. The command to do this is "#dd if=/dev/zero of/dev/hda bs=1000 count=1000" if anyone needs it to reinstall windows. It must be executed from a separate disk and not /dev/hda . I used a knoppix cd. I know using Windows sucks, but at the moment I need it for work and if I cannot figure this out I can't test Fedora. Thanks.

[sailor]

ok ...i wasnt sure of your level of experience...so I started at the most common problems...
I have not messed with FC2 at this point...
plenty of quirks with FC1 that keep me busy...It may well be a problem with WIn XP...other folks have had problems like you described with FC1 and WinXP where XP fails to boot and nothing will fix it....I don't think it was ever figured out...

[z1xq]

If the admin sees my thread please move it to the fedora test area, as I put it here by mistake.

[sailor]

I have been lookin around for info on grub and Fedora Test problems
and I found a similar problem in another forum:


I have my xp on the first partition of my 40Gb hard disk .I installed Fedora core 2 test 1 in the second partiton and I installed
the grub in the master boot and I make the xp the defualt .My problem now that I am not able to boot to my xp it gives me
(hd0,1)
chainloader +1
but ican go to fedora
is it a bug in fedora ?

I solved it by changing :

rootnoverify (hd0,1) to rootnoverify (hd0,0)

because grub starts counting from 0 so(hd0,0) means first partition in the first hard disk

[Prometheus]

Which test are you using, T2 or T3? I dont know of anyone having this problem with T2 thats why im asking, but maybe windows is just being really pissy. I know when i installed FC1 Grub wouldnt do anything with windows so i had to overwrite the MBR and stuff, still havent figured out how to get it to work without manually pulling the cables on hdds. In grub, you might want to try changing (hd0,1) to (hd0,0)) assuming that is that windows is on the primary partition. If windows is on anyother partition it refuses to work, just how windows is designed. Oh, well looks what i just said was said by sailorsgh, oh well, hope you get it working

[comprookie2000]

Same thing happened to me,only worse,I could not even boot from a cd anymore and I don't have a floppy,had to edit bios to get cd to boot,never had this with any other dist. and I have tried many.david

[Darkmage]

I never had a problem with dual booting with Win and I use partition magic to partition the hard drive. I just did an install of FC2T3 and it is running like a champ.

[larkguit]

I waited until my copy of Partition Magic arrived before I even tried installing Fedora.

(Now that Fedora is running I'm deleting the windows versions for the real Linux versions)

[dragon]

Lots of people are having this problem - please take a look at my fedora forum posts at http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=14703

I've noted a couple of solutions which have been discussed on various mailing lists.

[dgato]

got the same issue with fc7 test 4
grub shows :
(hd0,1)
chainloader +1

changed rootnoverify (hd0,1) to rootnoverify (hd0,0)
this did not work. when trying safe mode for windows it gives me the choice then i get the black screen with
GRUB_
besides that it starts into the recovery console for a soft restore,that doesnt do anything because the reboot goes straight into the recovery again.
cant do anything after that. ive read alot and am going to try some other stuff.
if i get it by some godly means i will post how i did it.
im thinking its booting into a seperate partition in which compaq stores the recovery?

[dgato]

after reading the first # is the drive and the second is the partition on the drive i changed the grub boot to hda 0,2
first thing i seen was the xp screen.
so my dual boot is going now except when it was booting to the recovery i got frustrated and did it. so im back to a bit of updateing again.

but it is working.
i had the feeling that would do the trick in the first place, but i think i sabotage myself when it comes to stuff so ill have something to do.

[dgato]

******by the way it was by no means "godly"******