Another Dual Boot XP Problem
 

I know this may have been basically covered on another post, but i'm a newbie and am not exactly sure what i am doing. I loaded 9.2 pro on an existing XP system and after it installed (without a problem) it rebooted and there was no option to boot to XP, only Linux and failsafe.

I tried to add XP to grub but it comes up with an error as follows:

Root (HD 0,0)
File system type unknown, Partition type 0x82

Chainloader +1

I also went in to the Suse Expert Partitioner and it lists the following:

DEV SIZE TYPE START END
/dev/hda 74.5gb st3800ba 0 9728
/dev/hda1 7.8gb outrack d46 0 1022
/dev/hda2 760.mb linux swap 1023 1119
/dev/hda3 65.9gb linux native 1020 9727

I can not find any trace of XP on the harddrive. I really would like to be able to retrieve my XP. Any help would be appreciated.

Welcome to LQ! Can you post the contents of your GRUB file? -- J.W.

I will give you just the windows title

root (hd 0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

dual boot problem
 

I have exactly the same issue with Fedora Core 3 - windows XP.

i have 2 drives 1 with xp 1 with fedora. tried master/slave swapping confirmed that l don't use MBR and get exactly the same response from GRUB.

My only fix is to control boot sequence from the bios - hack.

It sound like your Windows partition has the wrong (or unusual) partition type. I remember these ontrack disk managers that enabled old bios's to recognize large disks. Do you run such disk manager? If not, maybe it helps to change the partition type to NTFS. Although I have no idea if this affects your data on that drive.

ms magic
 

drive formatted by xp setup disk NTFS

I have just one seagate hd installed. I am very sure it was formated by XP to be NTFS. I did not run defrag or any type of partition software. I did change the bios to LBA after I installed Suse but it did not help.

When I try to boot to xp in grub it comes up with the fore mentioned error and then goes to a screen as if the computer had been shut off with the power switch not by the OS. It gives me a few different options to boot to xp but none of them work. It goes to the XP splash screen for about 3 seconds, then it goes to a screen with a blue box that says something but I it doen't stay on the screen long enough to read it. Then it goes to the grub editor.

You may try to restore the Windows bootloader to see if this is able to recognize the partition. See here for details:
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2002/0...tall_grub.html

If this works, you may use the XP bootloader to load Linux instead of grub:
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2002/1...l_grub_nt.html

or use a bootfloppy.

OK, thanks. I will check out the info and try it.

Does this apply to 9.2 pro also? I see it applies to 8.1.

Re: dual boot problem
 

I think you have a different problem. Most of the time this can be solved with the map command. Windows does not like to be anywhere except the primary master. Nevertheless, you can boot it simply from slave. Your command should look something like this:

title Windows
rootnoverify (hd1)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1

thanks for your patience.

could you please explain what hd1 hd0 and chainloader+1 actually means because l have tried every permitation - secondly l guessed that xp had the master issue and have installed that way after "much" frustration.

thanks in advanced.

gd2shoe

I tried what you suggested but the boot loader configuration tool in Yast does not let me insert 2 map commands.

This is how I have the grub configured for xp

title windows xp
section type other
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

I am wondering if maybe it has something to do with the way the windows partition was formatted. because when I went to the expert partitioner and looked at the partitions it does not say NTFS for the /dev/hda1 for the type, it says "ontrack dm6". anybody know anything about this?

bill

bill1850: You have only one hard disk in the system. You do not need the map command.

:scratch: The above post confuses me considerably. (It is recommended to defrag an ntfs partition (from Windows) before shrinking it. That aside for the moment...) It sounds like the Windows boot loader is getting loaded, and recognizes that Windows did not start properly the previous time. A blue box? If the whole screen were blue that would be one thing (reminiscent of a 'stop error', aka BSOD). But a box? What color is the rest of the screen around the box? Do you have a digital camera available to capture it with? How in the world would it get from there back to grub? When you say "grub editor" do you mean the menu, the prompt, or something different. It is possible for grub to still be in memory at that point, but there is no excusable reason that I can find for windows to jump to that spot in memory (without loading it's stuff there first). Does the system reboot at the blue box?

Keeping my confusion in mind, I think your ntfs partition was damaged when it was resized (this doesn't explain the problems with your partition type). If this is the case, then you may be able to read some of what is left from Linux.

Better yet, see if you can select boot logging from that menu. If you can't, then push F8 repeatedly just before that and select logging. Now if you can read the partition from Linux, find the windows/system32/ntbtlog.txt file (It think it's in unicode or something, by the way). If you can get a copy of this file from your system, it may help in understanding your problem.

You might try running "chkdsk /p" from the recovery console on the Windows installation CD.

From Linux, you can change the partition type using "cfdisk /dev/hda1". I have seen one instance where a system would not boot Windows 98 because the partition type was wrong, but it was a weird set up in the first place (third party boot loader). I don't think Windows cares about the type, but maybe it does (still wouldn't explain your other behavior, though).


lloydie:

Sure. Grub labels the disks/partitions differently than Linux does. This can be a source of confusion. Basically, you start counting at zero instead of one.

(fd0) - floppy disk drive

(hd0) - primary master drive
(hd1) - primary slave drive
(hd2) - secondary master drive
(hd3) - secondary slave drive

(hd0,0) - primary master, first partition
(hd1,0) - secondary master, first partition
(hd0,2) - primary master, third partition
(hd2,4) - secondary master, first logical volume (/dev/hdc5)

You should be able to compare these to your /boot/grub/device.map file.

"Chainloader" means to grab and load the first block of the root device and run it. I believe it got this name as you would chain boot loading code together (bios-> mbr-> grub-> something else-> etc.).

The map command logically swaps two drives. It does not fool Windows for very long, just long enough to get Windows to boot. You must use map anytime you install Windows to a master drive, and then switch that drive to slave. To avoid confusion, the "root" device should still be the true drive. Don't go loading (hd0) in an attempt to load (hd1) ;) .

gd2shoe

OK, I will forget the map command. I relized after loading suse that they recommend running defrag from windows before installing suse.

yes, I think you are correct that the bootloader is getting loaded and is trying to load windows xp. Like I said it comes up to the xp splash screen for 2-3 seconds then goes to another screen to what looks like a blue box but it only stays on the screen for a split second. It could be that the whole screen is blue but it is only up for such a short amount of time that I can not tell. It also has some writing on it but of course I cannot tell what that says either.

Then it goes to a black screen with white text that says something to the effect that windows was not shut down properly and I have 5 options to choose from to restart.
1. Safe Mode
2. Safe Mode with Networking
3. safe mode with command prompt
4. last known good configuration(your most recent settings that worked)
5. start windows normally

When I choose any of these options the screen goes blank and the computer reboots.

So it does look like the boot loader is working properly, but maybe something in windows got corrupted? I guess it is still confusing why I would get the error message as follows:

root (hd0,0)
file system type unknown, partition type 0x54
chainloader +1

The above is a correction from my first post in which I indicated the error was type 0x82.

I took a picture of the screen w/ the 5 options but I am not sure how to attach it.

bill