I recently installed suze 9.1 on my laptop and originaly thought it would be no problem to have WinXP and Suze on the same machine. Apparently the partition is split and allows me to do this. However, upon installation of suze, my windows no longer works. I get the following error:

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

I found the driver update at portal.suse.com which I burnt to cd and tried to update. But with no luck my windows still does not load.

Does anyone know if I did something wrong or could help me with this task. I am very excited about switching to Linux, but would prefer to have both on my computer during this transistion.

Thanks everyone.

What type of computer are you using?

Most likely a problem with where the partitions are located. In order for Windows to work properly, it is necessarey that Windows be in the first partition of the drive.

Take for example:

A Compaq computer with a 4Gig recovery partition show up as drive C and D (D being the recovery partition) in windows. You would assume that drive C is the first physical partition and drive D is the second. This is not how HP, Compaq, Gateway, Emachines work. They place the recovery partition in the first partition of the drive. Now if you install linux on the recovery partition, Lilo and Grub will be able to boot linux, but the Microsoft MBR will not be able to find the Windows partition.


If your computer is one of these, you do not have a windows disc, but an Application and Driver recovery disc. You should:

Remove the HDD and install it in a working windows pc so that you can back up your documents and important files.

Reinstall the HDD

Boot from a Windows XP disc

Run the recovery console

At the command prompt type: fixmbr

This will kill your linux OS, but should recover your windows boot. Unless you alter the partition scheme, it will be unlikely that you will get linux running along with windows xp.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW THAT ANY OF THIS INFORMATION MAY ALSO KILL YOUR WINDOWS AS WELL.

To get linux running, you will need to have a windows xp disc. You will also have to change the partitioning on the drive so that windows is on the first partition and reinstall windows. After windows is reinstalled, reinstall linux on the second partition.

It is possible to use a repartitioning program to rearrange the drive, but I have had very little success.


PS- Everything I have said is a guess as I do not have the specs of your computer. Use the information I have provided with caution and only if you are sure of how your computer is set up.

Good Luck