Ok, first let me explain how I have my hard drive partitioned. I have a 55.8 gig hard drive, I made my Windows XP partition (NTFS) 45 gigs. I tested Windows XP, it worked fine. Now, I installed SuSE Linux on the remaining 10 gigs, and used 800 some MB for swap files. SuSE Linux seemed to have no problem finding my NTFS partition. I used Grub for my boot loader.

Now every time I choose Windows from the Grub boot loader, I get:

root(hd0,0)
Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
chainloader +1
makeactive

After looking through other posts, I have found nothing that has helped, as most people try to install Linux and Windows XP on seperate hard drives. This is not the case for me. Here are a few more things that I've seen techies commonly ask for in this case:

/etc/fstab :

/dev/hda3 / reiserfs defaults 1 1
/dev/hda1 /windows/C ntfs ro,users,gid=users,umask=00
02,nls=iso8859-1 0 0
/dev/hda2 swap swap pri=42 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs noauto 0 0
/dev/cdrecorder /media/cdrecorder auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0
/dev/dvd /media/dvd auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0
/dev/dvdram /media/dvdram auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0

/etc/grub.conf :

root (hd0,2)
install --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd0) /boot/grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd0,2)/boot/grub/menu.lst
quit

I know my data and the partition is still there, because as as you can see from the fstab, the /dev/hda1 ntfs partition. Also, I can access my C drive from Linux, and I see all my files. I've tried using the Lilo bootloader, that didn't work either.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Can you post your grub.conf file. For the windows entry does it look something like this:

title windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Try changing your XP entry in grub.conf to this:

title Microsoft Windows XP
rootnoverity (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Is there a different grub.conf file other than /etc/grub.conf ? Because I pasted what was in the grub.conf file right there.

If there is, please tell me where.

There should be a grub.conf or menu.lst somewhere in the /boot/grub directory.

My menu.lst file from /boot/grub looks like this:

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Tue Aug 17 17:18:56 2004


gfxmenu (hd0,2)/boot/message
timeout 8
default 0

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: ###
title Windows
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: ###
title Linux
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 splash=silent desktop
initrd (hd0,2)/boot/initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: ###
title Failsafe
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off vga=normal nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 3
initrd (hd0,2)/boot/initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: ###
title Memory_Test
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/memtest.bin


What changes should be made exactly? Should I just take the makeactive comment out of the Windows part and change the title to Windows XP?

make it like this:

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: ###
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

That's the way mine is, and it works just fine.

Ok, I changed the menu.lst file, so now it looks like this :

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: ###
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

I restarted, picked Windows XP from the grub boot list, and I got this against a black screen :

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Nothing happens. The disk activity light does not blink, and I hear no clicking from the hard drive. I'm assuming that it wasn't working, but I only waited for about 10 - 20 seconds.

Hrm...well, I've had a somewhat similar experience in the past. My computer's somewhat betrayed me for reasons unknown, and I'll soon be redoing my partitioning and triple booting again.

From what notes I've saved and will be using, this is what I can suggest:

If you're using only one harddrive, and you've got Windows on the first partition, I'm pretty sure this is how you'll want it listed in your boot loader...

title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader + 1

If you're using two harddrives, and you've got Windows on the first partition of the second harddrive, I'm thinking this is how you'll want it listed in your boot loader...

title Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader + 1

I'm probably going to redo my computer tomorrow, so I suspect the day will be full of frustration, disappointment, and perhaps tears of rage...basically, if you reply on Saturday, Aug. 21, I probably won't see it...hopefully this'll help.

Good luck,

Torquehead

people,

i have the same problem... i am using the fedora core 2, and i think it is the problem with the distribution...

anyways, the thing is, i've got a single hard drive, 55.8 GB... i have windows xp installed on the first partition, and a 10GB second partition + swap... after installing linux, onto the second partition, we cannot boot into the old winxp..

it just shows

Win_XP

rootnoverify(hd0,0)
chainloader +1

and then hangs.... please if any of you linux gurus can help out? i do believe we've tried all the above advice...

and yeah, i read somewhere it has something to do with sfdisk methods or something.. any help?