I have 2 drives, Suse 10.3 is on one and XP is on the other. Grub comes up and I choose windows or Suse. For reasons unknown, windows will not boot, message: "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEMS32config\SYSTEM, you can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original setup- CDROM. Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair." I rarely use windows unless I get a new piece of hardware and want to see how it works. The last time I was in windows was to install a HP 1315 printer. I downloaded the drivers and all was well, McAFEE updated and windows wanted to reboot so I closed out and booted back into suse.
Everytime I've had a situation with windows and had to use the setup cd I lost grub and couldn't get my Linux system back.
What is the best way to address this so I won't lose my beloved Suse?

Did you,re BIOS support to boot from both drives ?
If so put Suse GRUB on her own drive and change in the BIOS the boot order of the HD to change OS

The problem you are having is typical if the drives were "re-enumerated" - the BIOS will often do this if you ask it to change the boot order.

The fix (from http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/man...OS_002fWindows)

Add the following to your WinDuhs stanza in /boot/grub/menu.lst (before the chainloader +1):
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)

As the Grub docs state, this effectively swaps back hd0 and hd1.
With any luck that will be the end of your troubles; otherwise you may need to edit C:\boot.ini - you can do that easily with the ntfs-3g driver, but I prefer to avoid touching WinDuhs files unless absolutely desperate.

Why did this happen, I changed nothing. It's been working fine the way it was(is) for over a year.

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Mon Aug 25 16:23:12 PDT 2008
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd1,1)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 10.3 - 2.6.22.18-0.2
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.18-0.2-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD800BB-55J_WD-WCAMDA770235-part2 vga=0x31a resume=/dev/sdb1 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.18-0.2-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 10.3 - 2.6.22.18-0.2
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.18-0.2-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD800BB-55J_WD-WCAMDA770235-part2 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.18-0.2-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
rootnoverify (hd1,1)
chainloader (fd0)+1

###Don't change this comment - Yast2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,1)
chainloader (hd0,0)+1

The fixes in the link above are done in terminal and root???

map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0) didn't work.

This aplly when you let GRUB do the booting for Windows and Linux.
Not when windows do his own booting and GRUB does the LINUX booting
For instance I use 3 drives all sata drives SDA Windows XP/suse dual boot
SDB Fedora GRUB SDB
SDC Mandriva GRUB SDC
While installing on a drive that is the first boot HD device
When I like to change OS I just change the Boot HD
SO the GRUB from SDB and SDC has nothing to do with WIndows
Only suse GRUB has something to do with Windows and normally opensuse can
deal with it

I don't think that this has anything to do with grub. The error message is from a booting Windows, so grub's job of making Windows try to boot is done. This error message refers in fact to one of the registry hives, and it spells trouble. The registry (worst idea MS ever had) is damaged, and in my experience no amount of fussing with it can repair it.

I have seen this message once, and that was on a Windows-only computer. It happened out of thin air, too: the computer was shut down normally, and the next morning the registry hive was corrupt. The file was still there, but it wouldn't work anymore. I was able to get the computer to boot using a four year old (!) system hive, but actually repairing that system would have been too much trouble, so I reinstalled it.

In any case, you won't lose your Suse when you repair or re-install that Windows, just reinstall grub. The Super Grub Disk distribution can help you re-install it.

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/

Robin

the "system" file its looking for is part of the windows registry "hive",... if this is corrupt then good luck getting it back ... if it was an OEM install, (you got XP pre-installed on your pc when you bought it), then your most likely going to have to re-install windows, due to the hive that was archived doesn't match the OEM install ... there are ways to attemp to fix it if you did an install from a purchased copy of XP, google will help you there as the steps are more than I would cover in this post. As a pc repair tech I have tried this a dozen times and I would say it still failed 98% of the time and ended with a re-install. This isn't a grub error, however when you do re-install windoze you'll have to re-install grub to get suse back as mentioned in an earlier post, super grub disk is what you'll need.

Have to agree with the above, if you have a backup of the Windows machine or the registry, now would be a good time to use it. If you only backup your files -reinstall, it's not worth the effort to try to fix the registry. If you don't have a backup of your files, mount the file system under Suse, back them up and then reinstall.

I had this problem, or one very similar. One nice things about Windows reinstalls - the machine usually runs better for awhile.

Thanks for all the replies. I have the XP disk. What I've done to fix any "Windows" issues in the past was to reinstall it. I don't have much on it but what a time consuming hassle! I have windoze on one drive and Suse on another drive. The way I've done it is to unplug the Suse hhd and reinstall windoze, grub will see it. I've been told that won't work but it does. I thought there may be a better way but it doesn't sound like it. Thanks again, Suse is the best and has the best community!!

while you are still frustrated with windows you may consider speeding things up next time.

If xp is formatted as fat32...free partimage can take snapshots of it.
I am not sure how stable ntfs support is

quite a few people recommend using a windows tool to save images, my bro uses Acronis for vista images and restores no problem.

so I am suggesting

Create partitions sizes such that you have a spare partition to write images to.
install windows
take an image of it
boot into windows and burn to dvdrw....(to save discs) the image created by acronis, ghost, partimage etc
install linux
take an image of it using a live cd with partimage
boot up linux and burn its image to a dvdrw

then when you update or make significant changes....b4 you do
restore the last image
then do the update
then save the image and burn etc

Its a never ending cycle for me...(but lucky me I have no windows now) and it will save you stress in the long term.

good luck if you can afford to buy ghost or acronis

as you can see ntfs is not yet fully supported
http://www.partimage.org/Supported-Filesystems

simple opinion

I am glad you like Suse but not sure if you mean opensuse?

Personally I have never liked it...too slow.

sidux took 5 minutes to install after making selections....fastest I have ever seen.
sidux will give you the most recent software but it based on debian unstable.

If you have the bandwith...download the 1.5 gig of kde full sidux live dvd/install dvd and give it a spin?

good luck if you prefer not to.

cheerio

Acronis is a good backup solution, supports ext3/ext2 as well as long as you use 128 byte inodes..

openSuse yes. I've never heard of sidux.