Windows XP and Redhat 7.3 HELP!
 

I just installed Redhat 7.3 for the first time and it all went great!
Bad news is that my Windows XP won't boot now!!

I installed Partition Magic 8 on the original windows xp partition so that I could install Linux on the same drive. I run Partition Magic and it all seems to work. Everything seems to go fine. I resize the main partition to ~11Gdb and create an ext3 partition for Linux. It set the windows partition to inactive. I did not think that was going to be a problem. I install redhat 7.3 just fine (am typing this from mozilla!). I set up GRUB to dual boot butt when
I try to boot back into windows I get an error! It can't seem to find 'xmnt2002.exe' and 'autocheck'. The windows NTFS partition is currently 'inactive'. Will setting it back to active fix the problem? If so, how can I set the NTFS partition back to active from Linux? If not, have I toasted my NTFS partition???

Thanks in advance for any help you can give,
Matt Levy

sound like the grub.conf file needs to be setup for windows xp

title WindowsXP
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

RE: Windows XP and Redhat 7.3 HELP!
 

David,

Thanks for the GRUB info. I had already set up grub to work with WIndows:

from /boot/grub/grub.conf:

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

I have tried all various options (e.g. removing makeactive, etc...) but to no avail. :mad:

GRUB look like it sucessfully boots XP, but then the XP dies with the error messages 'autochk failed'... or something close to that. After reading a bit about the problem in other forums, it is not a unqiue problem, only I do not yet have the answer. The best suggestion I have found so far is that somehow the install of GRUB messed up the MBR for XP.

This forum may not be appropraite for this problem. Sorry to inflict my windows problems on you all.

Wish me luck!

-matt

Windows has to be on an active partition.Did you run PM8 from the CD and reset C: to active?
lynch

try booting the windows cd and run fixmbr
or fdisk /mbr with a win boot floppy

you will need to reinstall grub if it's going to boot your systems from the mbr, so have a working linux boot disk.

Sorted!!
Thanks for all the help!
From GRUB I did a 'unhide' on the XP partition. Solved the problem.
I also put a unhide for the partition into grub.conf.
Seems to be taking care of things.

Thanks again,
Matt

dual boot problems
 

hi,
i just installed Redhat 7.2 on my laptop which had windows XP. I had used Parititon magic 8 to partition windows XP. I made my linux partition as active and that made the windows partition hidden. I then installed linux and that went fine. Also installed Grub on the MBR. But now when i boot up Linux works fine. But when i boot into windows XP after the Xp logo screen it says that "autochk programme not found- skipping autocheck" Then the computer gives a stop message and shuts down. I have tried to setactive the windows partiton usinf the grub.conf but the problem still persists. Even after running fixboot from the XP installation CD windows does not boot. Is there a way out so that i can get to the windows partition. IS there some way of making that partition unhidden from linux.
thanks in advance
kaal

Re: Windows XP and Redhat 7.3 HELP!
 

...errrrr, I do not see any problem here.
Unable to boot Windows ? What's the point ? :D

I have the same problem with SuSE Linux 8.2.
Can you post the entries here?

these are my confs:
title Windows XP
unhide(hd0,0)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive

Partition Magic can also be used to toggle the active bootable status of any primary partition. It is an option in one of the menus when you are looking at the graphic display of your harddrive. I am not sure if that is causing the problem kaal is having or not. I do not have Win XP but do have Win 2K, Win ME, PC DOS 2000, SuSE 8.2, RH 7.3 and Red Hat 9 all on this computer. I also use Partiton Magic.

Does the the Partiton Magic or System Commander boot menu come up first when you boot up or does GRUB come up first? On my computer the System Commander menu comes up first and then if I select Linux GRUB or LILO is called. If I select Windows 2000, the normal Windows bootloader is used. When you install Linux with either Partition Magic or System Commander it is best to have LILO installed in the "root sector of the boot partiton" instead of the MBR option. I assume the same could and should be done if using GRUB. I do not know if you did that or not but if not doing that would result in the Partition Magic MBR being overwritten and then GRUB would just come up instead of the System Commander menu. I have made that mistake an had to boot from the System Commander Utility Disk 1 to to allow System Commander to detect the problem and correct it automatically. I am not sure from what you said if that is your problem or not?

One other thought is do you have a Win XP boot disk or a Win XP repair disk? If you have the Win XP boot disk you could try booting your computer up using that.

Here is one other thought that I would like to add to what I said above. On my computer I am able to run Partition Magic before booting up into Windows or any other operating system. I have found that it can be used even when Windows is not working for one reason or another. In the System Commander boot menu that first appears there should be an option on top of the screen for Partitioning which should run Partition Magic for you. Anyway, is that available for you to use? If that menu does not appear when you first boot up I would suspect that the System Commander or Partition Magic MBR has been overwritten by the GRUB MBR. I am not sure if that is your situation or not?

Here is a little cheap insurance for us xp users who haven't
cut loose from windows yet. Microsoft knowledge base 305595.
You can make a bootloader floppy that will let you boot xp. If
you can see xp but can't boot you can use midnight commander
to copy the needed files to a floppy.

problem is solved. it is in fact a partition magic problem. pm sets the ntfs partition to hidden and the system fails to start after that.

one solution could be to enter the drive with another computer (windows) and installed pm. pm recognises the hidden drive. set the drive to unhidden and windows will work again.

thank you very much for your great efforts!!!

all the best!

Spent 3 hrs on this issue.To make matters worse, I am an absolute newbie, so Ididnt even know how to set these parameters.Played around a bit at Grub screen and found out how to get to the prompt :o and set the options exactly as above other than Title which I left at WinDOZE.


Worked like magic. Saw a message...
Partition Magic completing....
system restarted to Windows Normally after that

Thanks many:p .You are my angel

:D fine!

So next time you solve a common problem, post it on the web so that it can be found by others... because it makes them happy, too :D

when you post here you are posting on the web. Google links to this forum all the time.

grub my grub
 

howdy folks!

i am also a newbie. so please, please help me with this. here it goes.

i am trying to install red hat 7.3. i already had winXP. however, after installation i cannot anymore access XP. (yeah, i know most of you will be happy for me to remove my windows!hehehehe!)

when grub loads, it will let you choose between red hat and dos. upon selecting red hat it runs fine. however, when you choose dos, the screen will just put

rootnoverify(hd0,4)
chainloader+1

any solutions out there for me to load XP?

hello everybody!

i have fixed the problem. through reading your replies of course. Linux is really great.

i solved by using the superuser. Then going to cd /boot/grub.
Then editing through pico grub.config. hope everyone will hear of this.

it is so nice to be part of the open source community!yahoo!

The mods like ppl like you:)
lynch

hi i have the same problem but cant find grub.conf!?

its not in /boot/grub

is there another way to chane the options or am i looking in the wrong place?

try/boot/grub/menu.lst or /etc/grub.conf.

similar problem with redhat 9.0. there's a typo to the grub solution: you cannot use "unhide(hd0,0)", you need a blank space between unhide and the left paren: "unhide (hd0,0)"
The grub command parser is primitive and will not report the syntax error. Without the blank space, your problem still remains and you will end up pursuing a different solution.

Ok, found this on a massive search and need some help. Same problem and below is my grub file, I just need to know how to put in the winxp part and where. Newbie at its finist:)

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,2)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda3
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,2)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-3)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-3 ro root=/dev/hda3 hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.18-3.img


Thanks for any help.:newbie:

At the end of the file

title WindowsXP
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

hd0,0 is for the first partition on the primary master drive, adjust as necessary.

remember newbie here, what do you mean by adjust as necessary.

With respect to the partition where windows is installed, you need to know the drive controller and partition.

hd0 = primary master
hd1 = primary slave
hd2 = secondary master
hd3 = secondary slave

The second number is the partitions position on the drive

Most windows installs use the first partition on the primary master. However on laptops and a few other machines there may be a hibernation, or diagnostic partition on the beginning of the drive. If this is the case then windows would usually install to the second partition on the primary master. (hd0,1)


For this to work you need to check the partitions with fdisk to be sure you have the right one. Guessing would also work in this case.

fdisk -l
Disk /dev/hda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 141 1132551 a0 IBM Thinkpad hibernation
/dev/hda2 * 142 3789 29302560 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3 3790 3806 136552+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 3807 7296 28033425 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 3807 3931 1004031 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda6 3932 7296 27029331 83 Linux



When you look at this you need to convert the device name to the grub naming convention like this..

hda1 = hd0,0
hda2 = hd0,1

hdb1 = hd1,0
hdb2 = hd1,1


In the case of this one the grub line would read (hd0,1)

If it fails to boot then you can go back and add this..

unhide (hd0,1)

again adjusting the partition name as needed to point to the windows drive and partition.

If your ntfs partition is set to be the bootable partition you will see the * in the output of fdisk -l

/dev/hda2 * 142 3789 29302560 7 HPFS/NTFS

ok, did that last night. Didn't see the other post till this morning will try them this afternoon. I put in the other in Grub with kedit at the end hope that was right. now it says operating system missing. I can boot with the xp cd and get to the partitions and the primary say os inactive. I am gonna learn this linux if it kills me:) and makes you all pull out your hair.

:scratch:

AS the Penguin spins is like the bits and bites of our minds at night:)

THis is my setup.

# equals the little square

#/dev/hda 1 4155 32593 NTFS
|
#hda2 4156 7442 25784 Extended
| |
| hda5 4156 7442 25784 NTFS
|
|--hda4 7443 7666 1757 linux-swap
|
|--hda5 7667 9732 16206 ext3


I tried adding the winxp to the grub loader.

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,2)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda3
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,2)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-3)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-3 ro root=/dev/hda3 hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.18-3.img
title WindowsXP
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

I am lost as you can get:)

This looks like a problem.

Is it a typo or does it not actually have /dev/hda1 1 4155 32593 NTFS


Have you tried adding this somewhere under "title WindowsXP" ?


unhide(hd0,0)

#/dev/hda
hda1 1 4155 32593 NTFS
|
#hda2 4156 7442 25784 Extended
| |
| hda5 4156 7442 25784 NTFS
|
|--hda4 7443 7666 1757 linux-swap
|
|--hda5 7667 9732 16206 ext3

sorry, my bad on that


# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,2)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda3
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,2)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-3)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-3 ro root=/dev/hda3 hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.18-3.img
title WindowsXP
unhide(hd0,0)
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Now this is what I have. I hate asking all these questions, think of me as a pet project:newbie:

Stillsays missing operating system

try this ..

grub-install /dev/hda

If that fails then here is what I would do. \

Use the xp disk to fix the mbr if you can and get XP booting.

!!!!! Be sure you have a working Linux boot floppy first. !!!!!

Boot Xp and be sure it works.


Boot into Linux with the floppy.

install grub like this

grub-install /dev/hda

where do I put the grub-install portion at. Anywhere in the grub config. Also the only way I boot into linux now is via a boot disk. If I just let it try and boot it comes up with missing operating system. I believe it is refering to XP. I do have another machine running XP in the house. If I need files to get me started I can steal them from that machine if that is a viable option. I really appreciate all of your help so far. If I ever get this back up I am going to install Mandrake 9.1, I have copies of it at the house.

you don't put it anywhere you run it from the command line.

If you don't install grub then it won't boot from the hard drive.

Ok, now back to NTLDR missing on boot up. Can still get to RH but nothing else.