help needed - grub boot problem

[BigJezz]

i recently purchased a 'compaq presario sr1060an' (if you need the specifics, just ask please). using partition magic 8, i made about 20gb of space avaliable for fedora. i then installed fedora and all went well. however when i now go to boot windows it instead boots compaqs system recovery process. the system recovery process is located in a 3gig partition in front of the windows partition. where is the windows boot loader placed and how do i configure grub to boot windows from the correct place?
thankyou for any help in advance
jezz

[BigJezz]

i should also add - that during installation it warned me that some partitions werent aligned properly and could cause problems with booting. it suggested that i make a boot disk. however - i dont have a floppy drive and was unable to.
once again thanks for any help.

[BigJezz]

change of plan. how do i fix the MBR. i am told that you need to be in a command interface and type fixmbr. i am running windows xp - however it reinstalls from a partition. do i need to be in a windows command promt for fixmbr to work. or will it work in a linux shell? i would like to remove grub and fix the mbr so that it just boots into windows. and then remove fedora altogether and put it on a different computer.

[imdeemvp]

the grub installs in the MBR...which is where your windows boot sector was so it was erased by the grub.....this is a problem with a lot of new systems that have a recovery system in an added partition!

did you ever created the 5-8 cds for your recovery process? i suggest you to do that first before you continue with fedora because at one point or another the boot sector may get damaged and you will be stuck without your windozz...

follow the instruction in your compaq to create those cd and not just make 1 copy make at least two sets of copies just in case..

you have a compaq that uses win xp with sp1 if you and this is what i did once with a pc similiar to yours.....we created the set of recovery discs....then i used my xp with sp1 and used the other guys windows key to install it and luckly for us it was accepted and we installed xp without any compaq software (but just make sure you have your video driver and sound and modem drivers which you can get from the compaq drivers download according to your model and burn'em in a separet cd.)

then we wiped out the entire hd...and installed xp first and then fc2 and i worked like a beauty :D

BUT before you do all this modify your grub.conf and recreate your windows line to this:
title Win XP
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

hopefully it may help

[imdeemvp]

fdisk /mbr to fix your mbr but it maybe too late

[BigJezz]

thankyou. i will give it a try. i have created the set of cds luckely. because currently i cannot get into windows. but i will try what you have suggested. thanks.

[BigJezz]

ok - i changed the section in my grub.conf file,

FROM

title DOS
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

TO

title Win XP
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1


and now when i boot into windows, instead of it starting the compaq recovery program, i get the following meassage.

Error 21: Selected disk does not exist

Press any key to continue..._

any ideas on what i can do, in order to boot into windows.
once again thanks for any help in advance
jezz

[BigJezz]

also after doing that, when booting into fedora it gets stuck on 'Checking for new hardware'. so i changed the grub.conf file back to its originla state and it now boots into fedora.
so my question now is (oh boy a windows question) if i use my disk set to do a system recovery of windows will that replace grub and then just boot into windows - leaving the linux partitons untouched? or do i need to fromat the drive first removing everything and then do the system recovery? and will it work that way? (ie - formatting the hardrive, will the system recovery operate fully from the dvd?