Dual Boot; WinXP no load

[wenck]

I've read a few of the other posts on problems with dual booting, but non seem to help my particular problem. I've been using linux for a few years now, and I've finally convinced my parents to let me dual boot their computer.

Ok, so here's the scoop.

Original State:
20GB drive, two 10GB parititions, WinXP Pro installed on first partition (hda1)

Fedora Core 2 Install Procedure:
Deleted second partition, and created /, /home, and swap partitions. Received warning about partition table, selected "ignore". Installed Grub to MBR, linux booted fine.

Post Install Problems:
I went to boot windows xp from grub, but the machine stopped after printing

Booting 'WinXP'
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Steps I have taken so far:
- fdisk /mbr (from win98 boot disk); grub no longer appeared, but windows would still not load.
- fixmbr (from winxp cd recovery console); same as previous
- used fedora install cd to recover grub installation, installed with grub-install /dev/hda
- Booted to win xp cd again, ran 'fixboot c:' and then 'bootcfg /rebuild', but system still hangs after selecting WinXP in grub

The windows installation IS still there, and I can see the files from the WinXP recovery console.

Can anyone offer me any help in getting Windows to load again without losing all of the data?

Thanks

[zodaic]

Try changing drive type to "LBA" and then run the fixmbr stuff. That worked for me. I got my Windows back with no data loss. What is your hardware like? nFORCE2?

[Bana]

For me I had to add two more lines to make it read something like this:title Win2K MainDrive
root (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1

[KaiN]

Steps I have taken so far:
- fdisk /mbr (from win98 boot disk); grub no longer appeared, but windows would still not load.
- fixmbr (from winxp cd recovery console); same as previous
- used fedora install cd to recover grub installation, installed with grub-install /dev/hda
- Booted to win xp cd again, ran 'fixboot c:' and then 'bootcfg /rebuild', but system still hangs after selecting WinXP in grub

Have you tried to boot into windows with safe mode?

Or

Start with dos prompt and type...

attrib boot.ini -s -h -r
then type: edit boot.ini
Check this link (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=289022#Task3)

and fix the boot.ini file.
don't forget to +s +h +r when you are done saving the file.

[lafalot]

I'd had similar problems.
first, when I first installed FC1 and tried to attempt the dual-booting, being the linux newb that I still am.
second, when I'd gotten a new HD and wanted to re-install stuff.
I recently re-installed FC1 and it dual-booted on the first attempts at each OS, because I find that the installer is not quite right. anaconda says to install on the MBR for single-boot or dual-boot with 9x, and in first sector for NT-based dual-boot. I find that if you simply let it install GRUB on the MBR, and have the WinXP partition as hda1, then it'll work with no problems, at least for me.
WinXP Pro
FC1
AMD Athlon XP @ 3Ghz or so
ATi Radeon 9200
NVIDIA NForce2

[wenck]

Originally posted by Bana
For me I had to add two more lines to make it read something like this:title Win2K MainDrive
root (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1

I only have one drive, so this failed as expected when I did it from the grub command line at boot. I even tried it with rootnoverify on the first line.

[wenck]

Originally posted by KaiN
Have you tried to boot into windows with safe mode?

Or

Start with dos prompt and type...

attrib boot.ini -s -h -r
then type: edit boot.ini
Check this link (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=289022#Task3)

and fix the boot.ini file.
don't forget to +s +h +r when you are done saving the file.

I cannot boot to safe mode, because the boot process does not even get that far. The recovery console does not have 'edit', so I cannot modify boot.ini by hand.

bootcfg /list appears to have the correct disk and parition listed, but after repeated 'bootcfg /rebuild' commands, I now have three almost identical lines in the boot.ini, and the bootcfg in the recovery console lacks the /delete option. Being that I don't even get far enough to choose one of these on boot, I think the problem lies elsewhere.

[wenck]

Originally posted by zodaic
Try changing drive type to "LBA" and then run the fixmbr stuff. That worked for me. I got my Windows back with no data loss. What is your hardware like? nFORCE2?

I'm assuming you mean to change the drive type to LBA in the BIOS. I have an abit mobo with an intel 815 chipset. I didn't see any options to change the drive to LBA, but I did toggle 'plug and play OS' to no, because I've seen it do wierd things on other computers in the past.

I tried doing the sequence:

- fixmbr
- fixboot c:
- bootcfg /rebuild

And it still does not work. I also forgot to mention that last night I tried to reinstall winxp with the repair feature, and it did not work. I wonder if the full install option performs like a dirty install
in win98. It's been quite some time since I've dealt with windows, which makes this quite annoying. Make it a problem with linux, and I could have had it fixed by now.

[wenck]

Originally posted by lafalot
I'd had similar problems.
first, when I first installed FC1 and tried to attempt the dual-booting, being the linux newb that I still am.
second, when I'd gotten a new HD and wanted to re-install stuff.
I recently re-installed FC1 and it dual-booted on the first attempts at each OS, because I find that the installer is not quite right. anaconda says to install on the MBR for single-boot or dual-boot with 9x, and in first sector for NT-based dual-boot. I find that if you simply let it install GRUB on the MBR, and have the WinXP partition as hda1, then it'll work with no problems, at least for me.
WinXP Pro
FC1
AMD Athlon XP @ 3Ghz or so
ATi Radeon 9200
NVIDIA NForce2

That is exactly what I did (to the MBR) and it did not work. :-\

[zodaic]

I have a nforce2 motherboard. Here is what happened in my case:

> WinXP wouldn't boot from GRUB.
> I loaded the WinXP recovery console and typed "fixboot" and "fixmbr" in succession.
> After that my computer wouldn't boot into anything saying "Error loading operating system"
> I went into the BIOS and changed my drives from "Auto" to "LBA".
> Computer booted into WinXP just fine.

Again, it's not clear what is behind this bug so my solution may or maynot work for you.

[Prometheus]

I hate to keep bringing this up, but Nforce 2 mobos tend to have major problems with GRUB and dualbooting in general. For whatever reason, they are majorily picky and dont like dual booting. There is a whole big bugzilla thing on it, so you might want to start there if you have a NF2 mobo. Good luck.

[wenck]

It's not an nForce, it's an Intel 815. Looking the bios, I'm not seeing an LBA option, and I've seen them before in other bioses. I'll i see is PIO mode, and it has options auto, Mode 0 - 4. I"m going to try to see if i can find out which is for LBA.

[wenck]

Ok, I was looking in the wrong place. I found the LBA option in the bios, and now Windows XP boots. Heh, now I have to finish the reinstallation I started before.

Thanks for the help everyone.

[zodaic]

Good to know of more survivors.

[lafalot]

perhaps my mobo had LBA on by default... anyone know if an Asus A7N8X would do that?

[Nikola]

I had, I think, simillar problems with RH9.
It was my laptop, dual booting Win Me and RH9. I was trying to update Me with Windows XP, but setup was failing every time, with some error that my HD is corrupted. I've found by googling that problem could be connected to LBA, MBR and stuff like that. Messy.
Solution was to install PowerQuest Partition Magic 8. When I started it, it also said that HD is corrupted, and gave me option to fix it. After that, Win XP went without problems, everything worked, RH9 boots fine.
Also, on my desktop, tripple booting XP, Fedora Core 2 and BeOS, partitioned with RH9, also shows HD errors when launching Partition Magic. It fixed those problems, too.
Maybe RH9/Fedora partition part is screwing up something.

[KaiN]

Glad you got it fixed.

[wywsyy]

hem... so wad is this LBA thing?

[wolveso]

" Logical Block Addressing. An Enhanced BIOS translation method that allows for larger hard drive sizes (up to 2 terabytes), by providing the Operating System with a long list of Logical Block Addresses instead of the Cylinder, Heads, Sector configuration."

: )

[k3nchamber]

For anyone foolish enough to ignore MBR warnings and accept offers to "fix" same, and who now can't boot into the "other" OS in a dual boot situation, a fix was posted to fedora-test-list a few days ago. See http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2004-May/msg02114.html

But of more importance to those who dual boot and who are thinking of upgrading to FC2, the second reply to the above fix lists an advoidance method, that I can verify that it does work (in that on one of two systems that I have upgraded to FC2 warned me that my /dev/hdx was corrupt. I cancelled out of that upgrade (rather than selecting ignore), and for the next upgrade attempt specified the correct cylinder/head/sector values for the drive the upgrade HAD complained about . The result is no warning during upgrade and dual boot still works.

To clarify, I put hda=cyl#/head#/sector# on the vmlinuz parameter during upgrade boot.

[masterpro]

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


Try this it worked on my atlhon 2500+ With Nforce 2 plus SATA drive i have 2 drives but the boot systems are in the same drive.

If you have it on other disc then you will have to change:
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
to
rootnoverify (hd1,0)

This is the system that work with my SATA drive.


And Booth the Systems boot ok after i make this changes.

Hope this can help

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

[postlogic]

Originally posted by k3nchamber
For anyone foolish enough to ignore MBR warnings and accept offers to "fix" same, and who now can't boot into the "other" OS in a dual boot situation, a fix was posted to fedora-test-list a few days ago. See http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2004-May/msg02114.html

But of more importance to those who dual boot and who are thinking of upgrading to FC2, the second reply to the above fix lists an advoidance method, that I can verify that it does work (in that on one of two systems that I have upgraded to FC2 warned me that my /dev/hdx was corrupt. I cancelled out of that upgrade (rather than selecting ignore), and for the next upgrade attempt specified the correct cylinder/head/sector values for the drive the upgrade HAD complained about . The result is no warning during upgrade and dual boot still works.

To clarify, I put hda=cyl#/head#/sector# on the vmlinuz parameter during upgrade boot.

foolish enough to ignore? one would think that a final release is free of these kinds of faults.

anyways. that fix might work for most people, but what about us without floppy drives? I don't have access to the internet from a machine with a cd burner either, so I can't make a bootable cd with fdisk on it.

aside from that.. this 'sfdisk -d /dev/hda | sfdisk --no-reread -H255 /dev/hda' fix returns an error claiming that the extended partition doesn't start on a cylinder or something.. *sigh*

this has taken away valuable workdays.