Hi,

I have 4 partitions :

hda1 for XP
hda2/3/4 for linux root/boot/swap

I installed the grub into MBR. It worked well. I wanted to mount the ntfs, so I did these:

make xconfig
make dep
make bzImage
grub-install /dev/hda1

then I restart the pc but couldn't get the boot menu. So I reinstalled the RedHat 9 (also reformat the linux partitions). Now I can see the boot menu and can boot into Linux. However, if I select to boot XP, the pc shows

Booting "WinXP"

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

GRUB loading stage2...

then throws me back to the menu.

Could someone tell me what did I do wrong and how could I fix it?

Thanks heaps

I meant "MBR, GRUB and XP"

Sorry about the typing

You have now overwritten the MBR for Windows XP.

The best thing to do is this and you will need a boot floppy for Linux:

Boot off the WIn XP CD and go into rescue mode ODS prompt and restore the boot records (not sure of commands needed).

Then reboot the machine with the Linux floppy and then re-install the Linux bootloader.

This way, you should be able to boot both from the Grub menu.

-Tefal

Hi mqa2d

Here's how you mount an NTFS partition from XP into Red Hat 9.

Open a terminal in RH9 - type :

su
Then type your root paswword

mkdir /mnt/windows

(now you've got a mount point) - next

kedit /etc/fstab

(your fstab file will open)

Put an entry at the bottom of your /etc/fstab file on a new line - Just substitute in your User ID Number ( uid ) in place of my example one.

/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows ntfs auto,ro,umask=0222,uid=501 0 0

(remember that there's 6 entries in this line with a space between each - except for the 4th "options" field which is joined up with commas.)

You can get your User ID Number by becoming Root user on the command line (su - root password as before) and typing:

id username – (substitute your username in)

The first bit of info on the left will say

uid=500 (or something similar) - just substitute that in in place of my example one.


( Red Hat currently doesn’t include a NTFS driver because of uncertainties surrounding the legal status of the driver)

So - to READ a NTFS partition from Red Hat, you can either:

• Download and install an RPM – or
  
• Compile your kernel

Your best just getting the relevant RPM - Check out this site for an RPM

http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/info/redhat.html

Remember - Red Hat with the right RPM can Read NTFS ok - it can't write to it succesfully - don't try and write to it - it will probably ccorrupt the filesystem.

If you want to share data between XP and RH9 your are better off with a separate FAT32 partition - then - both OS's can read/write to/from it with no problems

Thanks Everyone.

I've tried these:

overwrote boot sector by using

fixboot
fixmbr

in the XP Revovery Console, and reinstalled the GRUB to MBR by reinstalling the whole RH9. I can boot into RH. However, if I select to boot XP, I got the message:

NTLDR is missing.

I copied the NTLDR and NTDETECT into c:\ from the XP boot CD, but still got the same message saying 'NTLDR is missing'.

One thing I might need to mention is that, when I install the Linux, I saw the file system in XP partition was 'vfat'. In pamagic it shows 'fat'. - it was 'ntfs'.

Any one has any idea about this?

Thanks very much

MQA