I am having trouble with a Linux/Win XP dual boot setup. Each O/S is installed on its own SATA disk. When the disks are installed separately, both Fedora and XP boot up normally. What I am trying to acomplish is dual-boot capability using GRUB and the two disks.

My two SATA disks are as follows:

(sda or hd0,0) 465GB Fedora 12

(sdb,1 or hd1,0) .20GB
(sdb,2 or hd1,1) 465GB NTFS

My best guess at grub.conf is shown below. I have also tried all the other disk and partition combinations with no positive effect:

# 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 (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_shorty-lv_root
# initrd /initrd-[generic-]version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
# hiddenmenu
#title Fedora (2.6.32.16-141.fc12.i686.PAE)
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32.16-141.fc12.i686.PAE ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_shorty-lv_root LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet
# initrd /initramfs-2.6.32.16-141.fc12.i686.PAE.img
title Fedora (2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686.PAE)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686.PAE ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_shorty-lv_root LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet
initrd /initramfs-2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686.PAE.img
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

What trouble are you having specifically?

Is sdb1 a /boot partition for Fedora or a Win system partition? XP generally doesn't need those but if it was an OEM install it might be a backup/restore partition. If it's /boot, GRUB could be looking in the wrong place and/or for the wrong thing. Need this info to be of any more help.

Generally, in a dual-boot setup Win has to be installed first; Anaconda (and most other installers) are usually pretty good at finding Windows installs and modifying GRUB accordingly. Doing it manually and with Linux first usually results in boot issues; worst-case you can corrupt the MBR.

there is a simple way.
download and install "acronics OS selector" in xp .
when ever u r machine boots it first shows u a screen of OS selector.
u then choose u r OS

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I spend 95 percent of my time in Linux. I need to find a way to make GRUB work other than switching the SATA cables around and reboot. Thanks.

Lats ask the most important question again:
You must explain in detail what is happening.


Everything looks OK except , I think you it should read if Windows is actually installed on that second partition.