Looking for some help or at least some pointers to more information.

I have been running a dual-boot Fedora Core / WinXP machine for several years now. Recently I decided to take the plunge and install (not update to) Fedora Core 6, and now I can no longer boot into windows (still using Grub).

Here are the details I believe are important:

hdb1 = ntfs partition with my WinXP installed (still there, verified)
hdb2 = ext3 partition with FC6 installed
hda mbr = Grub install
hda1, hda2, hda3 are just old partitions from a prior dual-boot Windows / Linux machine.

When I did the FC6 upgrade the 1st time, I installed Grub to the /dev/hdb mbr, FC6 to /dev/hdb2, and made sure on reboot that my bios was pointed toward hdb (don't remember the HD brand).

I had other issues, so then I re-installed FC6 to /dev/hdb2 again and moved grub to /dev/hda's mbr.

Now when GRUB boots WinXP on rootnoverify(hd1,0), I only get the following before the machine hangs indefinitely:
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot
(at this point, the machine hangs.... if I go to Fedora, everything boots fine...)

I've since used my WinXP CD "R" option to go to the command line and do "FIXBOOT" and "FIXMBR" (it does recognize the correct NTFS parition and everything appears to still be there). This has not made any difference that I can tell.


My grub config file looks like this:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#boot=/dev/hda
default=1
timeout=50
splashimage=(hd1,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.18-1.2798.fc6)
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.img
title WinXP
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot

Regards, Blacklisted.

If you are booting into hda from the bios, then the grub entry for windows needs the "map" commands (since windows is on hdb).

I think you need this in your menu.lst file:

title WinXP
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
map (hdo) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot

Also, is the Windows partition marked as active? (fdisk /hev/hdb to check)

Thanks, Pixellany!

I'd found examples similar to that one that said do things like :
map (hd0,1) (hd0,0)
map (hd0,0) (hd0,1)

But I never made the mental leap necessary to see how that would be applied with the harddrives swapped, versus the partitions.

Again, thank you very much.

NOTE TO FUTURE READERS: Here is a good link to the Grub documentation that tells you not only what you need to do, but why...

EDIT: Can't post links here yet... can someone post a link to the appropriate Grub manual entry, under
4 Booting
* 4.2 Some caveats on OS-specific issues
o 4.2.6 DOS/Windows

Strangely, this didn't come up in Google at the top, and even took a small bit of digging from the main Grub homepage. Since I often rely on Google to help me track down such information, my hope is that having a link in this LinuxQuestions forum entry will give folks a slightly higher chance of finding the right information...