Error booting into Vista after installing Fedora 9

Captain DDL · 06-09-2008, 02:27 PM

Howdy! I'm having issues booting into Vista (home premium) after installing Fedora 9. When GRUB comes up, it gives me the choice between Fedora 9 and 'other'. When you choose to boot into 'other', the system restarts back at the BIOS. What can I do?

I'm running this on a Dell XPS M1530, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 160GB hard drive, 128MB Nvidia graphics card (I'm thinking it's an 8600, but I'm not for sure at the moment).

watcher69b · 06-09-2008, 02:33 PM

if you boot into Fedora9 can you see the vista file system?

Captain DDL · 06-09-2008, 02:39 PM

If I open the OS folder I can.

Captain DDL · 06-09-2008, 04:31 PM

Anyone have any ideas as to what I could do? I have a few programs on Vista I use that really don't have a developed equivalent for Linux, so I really can't quit cold turkey...

yancek · 06-09-2008, 05:12 PM

Rund the "fdisk -l" command and post it as well as the menu.lst file from /boot/grub directory.

Captain DDL · 06-09-2008, 05:53 PM

Here ya go.

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x10000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1          10       80293+  de  Dell Utility
/dev/sda2   *          11       17825   143098987+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3           17826       17850      200812+  83  Linux
/dev/sda4           17851       19457    12908227+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5           17851       19457    12908196   8e  Linux LVM

Disk /dev/dm-0: 11.0 GB, 11072962560 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1346 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-1: 2080 MB, 2080374784 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 252 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x30307800

Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

----

Code:

# menu.lst

# 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 (hd0,2)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,2)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.25-14.fc9.x86_64)
	root (hd0,2)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.25-14.fc9.x86_64 ro root=UUID=2365b7eb-03ea-4a18-a48b-4b37c9fde5bf rhgb quiet i8042.nomux=1
	initrd /initrd-2.6.25-14.fc9.x86_64.img
title Other
	rootnoverify (hd0,1)
	chainloader +1

Captain DDL · 06-10-2008, 02:30 AM

Anybody? I'd really appreciate any assistance.

andreas_skw · 06-10-2008, 04:35 AM

I'd try to help

From your menu.lst, i saw that there is no windows xp boot config.
First, you have to delete

title Other
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

And add several line like this

title Windows Vista Home Premium (*)
root (hd0,0) (**)
makeactive
chainloader +1

note: (*) : you can rename it as you want. You can rename it "Captain DDL".
Just have fun with it and it will appear just like you rename it in boot configuration

(**) : it is depend on where you install your vista.
(hd0,0) -- > means vista is installed on the first hard disk (physical hard disk, means if you
have two hard disk on your computer, so the option will be hd0,x and hd1,x. If you just have one, just let it hd0,x)
and in the first partition. (In Linux, the first partition will be known as "0", the second partition as "1" and so on)
If you don't know where you install your vista, try to look up in QTParted. I don't know if fedora has the QTparted or not.
If it doesn't exist, you can use GParted live cd.

I hope what i wrote here help you.

Captain DDL · 06-10-2008, 06:44 PM

Well, it's supposed to be (hd0,1), but it says something real quick before restarting the computer. It says 'filemanager...' but I can't see it quick enough. I tried experimenting with different values, but 0,1 is the only one it can be. 0,0 is dell's support partition, 0,1 should be my vista partition. I can access the files in Linux...the partition shows up as sda2. What can I do? This is kinda depressing...I'd hate to have to reinstall vista.

Captain DDL · 06-11-2008, 12:53 PM

Can anyone help?

yancek · 06-11-2008, 01:10 PM

You are usving LVM which changes things. In your output from fdisk you have the error messages:

Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table
Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Don't know anything about LVM but I expect this is the problem.

Captain DDL · 06-11-2008, 11:10 PM

What could I do to fix the partition tables?

Captain DDL · 06-14-2008, 01:44 AM

Could anyone help me? It'd be greatly appreciated.