well I have 2 hardrives a 40gb with a winxp install and a 160 gb with a Redhat Fedora Core 2 install and it is partitioned to have 60gb for Redora Core and 100gb for what ever i might put there =p, When i finished installing Fedora Core 2 on the 160 gb hd, it seemed to work just fine, but when i restart ithe comp and choose to load windows it just takes me back to the boot screen within 1 sec...Right now my 40gb with xp is the master hd, and the 160 is slaved to it, if anyone can help that would be great, my aim is Lifeshye

boot from a FC2 cd using "linux rescue" at the boot prompt

follow the instructions there

at the end
#chroot /mnt/sysimage

then do

#vi /etc/grub.conf

post that here

also post the output of
"fdisk -l /dev/hda"



"fdisk -l /dev/hdb"

regards

#example grub.conf on Red Hat
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Gentoo (2.4.20-gentoo_r6)
root (hd1,0) #<- linux is on hdb
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-gentoo_r6 ro root=/dev/hdb2 hdd=ide-scsi
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0) #<--hd0 if win is on /dev/hda
chainloader +1

Yours may be completely opposite
Linux may be on /dev/hda and is thus hd0
If win is on /dev/hdb then hd1 is used

# 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 (hd1,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb3
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Fedora Core (2.6.8-1.521)
root (hd1,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.8-1.521 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.8-1.521.img
title Fedora Core (2.6.5-1.358)
root (hd1,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.358 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.5-1.358.img
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1




Disk /dev/hda: 41.1 GB, 41174138880 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 79780 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 79768 40202631 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)



Disk /dev/hdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 12748 102398278+ e W95 FAT16 (LBA)
/dev/hdb2 * 12749 12761 104422+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdb3 12762 19262 52219282+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdb4 19263 19457 1566337+ 1f Unknown

hi

so can u boot with just ur primary hdd on??
and did u make some changes after ur instalation to ur hdd,(like swap them etc etc)

regards

nope, the windows 40gb was the primary and then i got myself the 160gb and installed linux on it, and now that seems to be the only thing booting, ive tryed disconnecting my 160gb linux drive to start just winxp and it gives a bad boot error...and ive tryed just making my 160gb linux drive the master with no slaved drive and that also gets a bad boot when starting up the comp. The setup it is now seems to be the only thing that works and that is 40gb windows drive primary and 160gb slaved to primary on my ide1

the only way I can access files from the 40gb hd is by mounting it to a folder =p

ohh and no, i diddnt change anything after the installation, its the same way it was when i installed linux FC2

Try going into bios and change the access mode for the Harddrive to "LBA" (don't leave it on Auto) and see if it helps.

Somehow my last message didn't post.
You might want to again disconnect the hdb drive. Do you have a means of booting off of an emergency boot floppy that has a dos/windows version of fdisk? If so, try fdisk /mbr to reset the master boot record on that windows drive. It really sounds like your mbr on the windows disk is bad.

If you can reset the mbr on that win drive, that would be a good starting point.

Thnx Demonbane, and everyone else for helping me, the auto to LBA is what worked =)