[SOLVED] DOS partition won't boot with GRUB

x111 · 10-04-2010, 08:40 PM

Hi. I'm trying to install MS Windows from my Linux box. Because I have no CD drives nor USB ports, I can't use any live media to boot the computer and install Windows from the installation disk. So I've created a FAT partition and copy DOS files on that, so that I can boot this partition and install Windows from there. But the problem is I still haven't able to get it to boot.

Here's the output of fdisk -l:

Code:

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77520 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xfc7efc7e

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1       26416    13313159+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/hda2           26416       77520    25756889    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5           26416       59775    16813408+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/hda6           59776       75270     7809448+  83  Linux
/dev/hda7           75273       75672      200781   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda8           75672       77202      771088+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/hda9           77202       77520      160618+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Here's the entry for booting that DOS partition in GRUB's menu.lst:

Code:

title		DOS
rootnoverify	(hd0,0)
chainloader 	+1
makeactive
boot

I created the partition by using cfdisk to format it as type 0B: WIN95 FAT32, and made dos filesystem on it using:

Code:

mkfs.msdos /dev/hda1

But when I reboot and select the DOS entry in GRUB, it tells me that:
"This is not a bootable disk. Please insert a bootable floppy and press any key to try again."

Anyone please tell me what I'm missing or doing wrong here? Do I need to change something on the MBR of hda1 etc..., I'm really no expert on this.
Thanks for all your help.

czarherr · 10-05-2010, 07:19 AM

Have you actually installed windows on that partition, or have you just copied the installation files over to it?

michaelk · 10-05-2010, 07:25 AM

What files did you copy? My guess is you are missing the system files i.e. io.sys, msdos.sys and command.com.

TobiSGD · 10-05-2010, 07:33 AM

What DOS-version are you using? No version below 7.10 is able to use FAT32, so you have to format it with FAT16. FAT16 can not be used on partitions larger the 2GB, so I think if you are using a DOS-version below 7.10 you will not really be able to install Windows-XP the way you thought of.

x111 · 10-05-2010, 09:29 AM

czarherrm, michaelk: I have copied msdos.sys, io.sys, commmand.com as well as other tools to boot DOS and to install Windows XP afterwards. But I cannot boot DOS. Well, I could not...

Until I found an instruction here on how to boot a disk image directly using memdisk with GRUB. The image I use is Dos 6 from allbootdisks.com, and I can install Windows XP using setup files copied to that the partition beforehand.

After setup has copied all files needed for installation to the partition, it reboots the computer to continue the rest of the installation, and now the problem with booting that DOS partition still persists. What I expected here is Windows Setup will remake the boot record on the partition for booting to Windows. As TobiSGD suggests, I think that this has something to do with the fact that Setup has failed to do that because it was invoked in a Dos6 environment. That's my best guess so far. I have tried fdisk /mbr in Dos6 but get no good result.

Now I'm going to boot a Windows XP iso and try fixing the boot record. I'll post the result here to keep you informed. Thank you all.