SUSE 9 Windows dual boot problem
 

I'm having problems booting into Windows. I've got SUSE 9.1 on the computer along with windows, and I'm trying to use GRUB to get the show running, and not having any luck.
fdisk /dev/hda option p gives me the following:

Disk /dev/hda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 689 14589 111659751 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 * 65 688 5012248+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 1 64 514048+ 82 Linux swap

Partition table entries are not in disk order

When I go into YAST and look at the Boot Loader setup/Available selections I see the following:

Linux image (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz (/dev/hda2,root=dev/hda2)
Floppy other (fd0) (/dev/fd0)
Failsafe image (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz (dev/hda2, root=/dev/hda2)
Windows other (hd0,1) (/dev/hda2)

I've tried doing both the following with the windows option, and it still hangs
title Windows A
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title Windows B
unhide (hd0,0)
hide (hd0,2)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot

Also I am thinking that a possible problem may be that FDISK says the table entries are not in order. I've tried using LILO and setting the windows thing to /dev/hda1 but it throws me an error saying I need to fix or ignore the partition problems. I've tried both the ignore and fix partition settings with LILO, and with both I get a message saying that its loading windows and then it hangs.

Can someone help? I really don't care if I have to use GRUB or LILO I would just like to get this thing running again. Let me know if I missed anything that would be of relevance

Thanks in advance

Jeff

it kinda looks like your partition table is messed up... how did you do it?

did you do fdisk and then 2 fresh installs, or did you resize a partition to add the other OS?

I was afraid that might be a problem. I repartitioned everything after I had already installed XP. If its possible for me to undo the linux partitions and restore windows, then go back and do some investigating on doing it properly that would work too. For right now though I thought it would be better if I could screw around with things and get it to work.

I'm trying my best to remember what I did... despite the order of the partitions, I think the way the sequence really goes is the linux swap is first, then linux, and then windows. I remember PM saying Linux would perform better with the swap located near the front of the disk so I told it to put the swap there.

I guess I'm looking for two things now- 1. Can this be fixed without having to reinstall SUSE and 2. Can I remove SUSE and restore things the way they were?

Jeff

i bet you would probably have the best luck restoring it to it's original configuration... Suse is a new install right? if so, this may be the least painful way to get it running again.

maybe if you fixed it back the way it was originally and then tried it again...

Also... is it possible that it has something to do with ntfs being your filesystem? partition resizers for ntfs seem a little sketchy to me...

Ok I have kinda fixed this problem.

I was reading in a Mandrake thread about someone having the same issues, and it was recommended that boot disk be made. So I put ntldr, setupldr, ntdetect.com, and a phony boot.ini on a disk and let her loose. I think it would have worked even better had I been watching my computer but oh well. With the disk in the Windows loader screen came right up, and at that I left my pc. When I came back it was reinstalling windows, and I tried to stop it, but it was too late- on reboots, even without the disk in I could get to windows from GRUB, but since I was in the middle of an OS install it took me right back to that instead of allowing me to stop what it was doing. So I let it finish and now I can get into windows from GRUB, although it definately has to think awhile. Right now I have the linux swap first, linux second, and then windows on my drive, which is why fdisk in SUSE told me the partitions were out of order. Unfortunately during the install some of my drivers were messed up (among other things) but everything that I need to work does, so I'm backing up all the data and I'm going to redo this the right way.

But for anyone else with this problem I would say try putting a boot disk in and getting to windows, and then rebooting and seeing what happens... I think if I would have been paying more attention I would have gotten a better result than I did, but then again for some reason there are about 2/3 minutes in between the windows boot screen and my login screen where as before the time was seconds so I suppose I would have been nuking the disk and reinstalling anyway.

Jeff