Dave, amigo, partner -- what did you do to that drive????

Actually, your problem looks fairly straght forward. Use your Linux boor disk and get Linux up; log in as root and open a terminal window. Type this to reinstall Grub:

/sbin/grub-install /dev/hda

Then, just for grins, open /etc/grub.conf and post the contents. In Red Hat, the easiest way is Start, Run Program and enter this in the window:

gedit /etc/grub.conf

Copy and paste this into one of your next posts.

Reboot and see if everything works.


Tom, this thread is getting kind of long, isn't it? If you can grit your way through getting Windows up, Partition Magic will give you the partition information I'm looking for--we're looking for something in front of your Windows partition.


mcleodnine, no, I'm not talking about something at the end of the drive; it is at the beginning of the drive. You are absolutely correct that up through Win2K, Windows pretty much insisted on having the first partition and will refuse to boot if it doesn't have that. How everyone (including Grub) gets around that Windows uses what the BIOS (or subsequent boot loader) passes to it--it doesn't check the disk's geometry. A hidden partition is ignored by the BIOS and the "first" partition designation is given to the second one. The Dell on my desk has this system and my MSCE told me it is quite common for computer manufacturers to do this today. It allows them to clone drives and only send Recovery disks instead of the normal install disks. It's a Brave New World, my friend.

Yeah, I read thru the thread, and the fact that nothing worked got me thinking. You're not gonna have any luck booting windows off the second partition, so if I were you I'd back up windows and do a complete reinstall, that is, if you want to restore everything.

When you repartition your system before reinstalling windows, make sure to run 'fdisk /mbr' so the master boot record is rewritten

Abel, I don't think we're at the sledgehammer stage yet. I don't think this is an MBR problem. I think they both successfully rewrote their MBRs, but when the Windows boot loader in the MBR tried to start the first partition, it didn't find Windows. Here's what I did on my computer:

The system I worked on used LILO to dual boot Win98SE (first partition) and Mandrake 8.0 (all the rest). I started Windows and issued fdisk /mbr. I rebooted to a normal Windows boot process. Used the Mandrake boot disk to start Mandy and reinstall LILO. Everything worked as advertised.

Here is where I think each of them stand:

Dave: His solution is pretty obvious to me. Based on how he's laid out his hard disk, when he installed Linux, he moved his Windows partition so he could put his /boot partition up front. He now has a bootable partition before his Windows partition, which the Windows boot loader cannot handle. Reinstalling Grub should fix this. But, if Windows still won't start, modifying grub.conf to hide the first partition will clear that up. I think he is just about fixed.

Thomas: I'll bet when he posts back he will report a small partition in front of his Windows partition. He has Partition Magic, so his solution is probably to use it to make the second partition the active one (hiding the first) and fdisk /mbr his hard drive. Unless he reports back that there isn't a little partition up front, this ought to head him to where he wants.

Comments?

ok, here's the grub.conf:
# 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/hda5
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-14)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /initrd-2.4.18-14.img
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1


ok, rebooting now
Dave

no luck, same problem.
2 questions:

1) how do I back up the few files on the windows partition ( I can't get to it)? I'm assuming mnt it, but how?

2)suggestions on changing he grub.conf?

Dave

Deadbug,

What would you like from me, contents of grub.conf or something from Windows? In your 12:02 post you mentioned booting into Windows and then using Partition Magic. Sorry for my ignorance, but I am no expert when it comes to Partition Magic. I have only used it to boot from, so if I need to do something differently after windows is up and running, please advise.

I have some time to devote to this this evening for a while.

Regards,
TAH

I just ran Ptedit from Partition Magic disk one for kicks. I see the partition table editor. I'd be happy to report on what I am seeing if this is any help.

I just ran the fdisk from same disk--again, for kicks--and there is something that appears to be this small partition you've mentioned in other posts. It has no drive number; it immediately preceeds FAT32; it starts at 0 and ends at 5.

This help?

Courageously yours,
Thomas

That is it Thomas--let me look at Partition Magic when I get home and I'll try to get you the instructions that will hide that little sucker!

Dave: Let me get home and I'll get the changes to grub.conf that should fix this.

Ciao

I'm Home!

Thomas: In Partition Magic, select the little partition (highlight it) and then from the top menu: Tools, Advanced, Hide. Select the next partition and see if Tools, Advanced will let you Unhide or make Active that disk. If it doesn't, don't worry about it--it should mean that it is already set.

Now, before you do this, be prepared to not boot through the Linux boot loader again. I would recommend having a Win98 boot disk with fdisk.exe copied to it standing by. I'm not talking about the one that Windows created, but a basic DOS boot disk. If you don't have one, just put a blank disk in and format it. When the format window pops up, the bottom option lets you add the system files to it. Check that and hit start. Before removing it, copy fdisk.exe and sys.com to it.

Make the PM changes and reboot the computer. It should start to A:\. Try changing to C:\ If you get your Windows partition, do the fdisk /mbr thing again and reboot your computer.

If you get a "Missing Operating System" error this time, reboot from the floppy and issue: sys c:\

Reboot.


Dave, log on to Linux as root and open /etc/grub.conf with a text editor. One easy way is in the Run Program menu, type: gedit /etc/grub.conf

Big picture, we want to hide the first partition when Windows boots and unhide it when Linux boots. Grub numbers from zero, instead of the Linux standard of 1. So your first partition on your first drive is hd0,0. In your grub.conf file you have two lines starting with title--title Red Hat ... and title Windows. After each of these lines we want to add a new line like this:

title Red Hat ...
unhide hd0,0

title Windows
hide hd0,0

Save the file and reboot.

Please let me know how this works out.

Aah crap, Deadbug! Once again we're not on quit ethe same page. You seem to be talking about some GUI interface, but what I described to you about the "little sucker" we want to kill is on a console from double clicking on Fdisk on the floppy disc with Windows up and running.

I am going to boot Windows now from PM to see if I can see what you are describing.

TAH

Oh man, yet another thing to deal with... (still smiling)

If I boot from PM disk I am prompted to insert second disc--that's normal, but then I get the following:

"PowerQuest PartitionMagic has detected an error 116 on partition starting as sector 1951875 on disk 1.

The starting LBA value is 19518975 and the CHS value is 164505559.

The LBA and CHS values must be equal.

PowerQuest PartitionMagic has verified that the LBA value is correct and can fix the CHS value.

Would you like [PM] to fix this error?

YES or NO"

Now, common sense tells me to just hit YES, but I'm sure you can understand that I want to avoid any more unknown variables, so I present this info to you, my mentor...

Awaiting my marching orders...

Sincere regards,
Thomas

by the by...

I suspect the reason for this message is because I let the partitions get rebuilt by the Linux re-install. I am pretty sure I have not re-entered PM since I did the Linux re-install

OK. I did what intuition told me: I clicked on YES.

Once back in the PM GUI I highlighted the little one ahead of FAT32 and in the Tools menu all that is available is BootMagic Configuration.

I have looked under other menus in PM and see nothing that seems intuitive toward what you have suggested.

Getting rid of grub or any boot loader you need a windows floppy disk, and boot it up, and type "fdisk /mbr" and it will reset boot mbr.