Ever since I installed Suse 10.0 RC1, my Windows partition has refused to boot, saying that my hal.dll file is missing or corrupt. I tried everything that I could do on the internet but nothing has helped. I tried to use the recovery console in my Windows install disc but then I got a BSOD after everything was configured. My last option was to reinstall Windows but that meant I would have had to reconfigure GRUB to overwrite the MBR Windows would have wrote.

When I read the GRUB documentation, I found that I could install Windows after installing Linux by creating a bootable CD option in GRUB and installing it from there. I used YaST to configure GRUB to create a CD option but I'm not sure what device I should link it to. I tried the device in my fstab file but that didn't work.

Could someone tell me which device I should link the CD option to so that I could boot off of my Windows CD to gain access to the recovery console or to reinstall Windows?

/dev/fd0 ?

/dev/fd0 is the floppy drive which is already configured in GRUB. I need the CD drive. I've already tried /dev/cdrecorder, /dev/cdrom, and dev/hda and everytime it says, "Error 23: Error while parsing number"

I'd use a liveCD to backup the boot sector to a floppy, let windows overwrite it, and restore it from the floppy.

I'll consider that but I want to recover Windows first before reinstalling it. Besides, it sounds a lot simpler adding a bootable CD option and installing through that. I could always create a bootable floppy but the only other computer that I have running is a laptop without a floppy drive but I could always make one when I go home this weekend. Though do they come with a recovery console?

As far as I know, you can use the existing installation or boot CD's you may already have. Once they detect an installed system, they should give you the option 'Boot from harddrive'. Meaning you don't need to create such a CD.

Even more, you can use the installation CD to restore grub to include both Windows and Linux in the boot menu.

Have a look at these links for background info:
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2002/0..._overview.html
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2003/1...em-Repair.html

Yes making a bootable Grub floppy for Suse is the way if you want to access it after Windows has overwritten it.

It is a very simple command

Log in as root in Suse (not even sure if that is needed but that does no harm)
click terminal
pop a floppy into the drive
type "grub-install /dev/fd0"

That is all.

If you want want Grub in MBR in a future day just type

grub-install /dev/hda

or grub-install /dev/sda if it is a Sata

I'm not sure what to do now since there are to many options and I'm not sure what is causing the problems. When I boot off of my XP install disc, I get a BSOD saying "session3_initialization_failed"

Can someone suggest me something that will preserve Windows so that I do not have to reinstall it since I don't have the time for it?

The Windows MBR can be restored by booting to a DOS floppy with fdisk.exe inside and type

fdisk /mbr

It does the same job as an installation CD.

And that should allow me to boot into Windows directly, right? And what do I do if I want GRUB on my computer but not in the MBR to prevent this from happening again?

Though Novell should have a warning saying that GRUB or LILO should be installed on the Linux partition instead of the MBR if there is another operating system on the computer.

I think this is where I went wrong earlier tonight. I Had set up a partition under windows and tried to install FC4. When I went to reboot, I got a grub prompt, but didn't know what to do. I figured my win partition was gone so I did a full wipe and (come to find out, a system restore only cleans the c drive, not both c and d (partitions, not drives)) Now, I'm ready to try again. I have searched and searched, but found nothing for my model computer. I will post in the newbie forums and post a link here shortly.

Jason

It is sad that most people panic and do not know how to use a Grub prompt.

I can use the same Grub prompt to boot up any of my 50+ systems using almost identical 3 lines of commands regardless if the system is a DOS, Windows, Linux, *BSD or Solaris.

The 3 lines are

Root (i,j)
chainloader +1
boot

where i=disk No. and j=partition No. bearing in mind GRub counts from 0

The only necessary condition for Grub to boot any of them is the target system must have its boot loader in its own partition, which is always the case for a Window, BSD and Solaris. In Linux it can be replicated any time or chosen during installation

After I restore the MBR, how do I make it so I can use GRUB on my computer without overwriting the MBR?

I would download BootIt NG and backup your working Windows MBR. After that you can install the bootloader safe in the knowledge if GRUB messes up you have a backup.