Windows won't boot after SUSE 10 install
 

I recently installed SUSE 10 onto my computer. The install went just fine and everything works(except I don't know how to install programs, but that is for another thread). After the install i wanted to restart into Windows. At the Grub loader i selected to boot windows, and it tried loading, but it couldn't find some file. Another forum said to load the Recovery console and input fixmbr. So I did this but still the same error. Any help is GREATLY appreciated. I am was thinking about reinstalling Windows, but I want to do it in my own time.
Windows XP Pro
1 hard drive partitioned
Windows installed first, SUSE second.

Please report the exact output of grub "error #xxx".

Where did u install SUSE?

Which partition does windows reside on?...Primary or Extended?

Where does suse lie (..paritition?)

Usually, if the fixmbr option has been used, things shud return back to normal and may be ..SUSE will be blow off....

Give me details about how u installed suse

Windows is on the Primary, suse is on EXT2 partition of that same hd. I installed suse on 5 cds. it didn't ask about boot options, i would have rather used a floppy to boot linux. Is there a way to just get rid of the Grub loader, i'm not too concerned about linux, i can try that again, but i do need to load windows. However that is possible, i don't care.

Hi Danny, welcome to Linuxquestions! :D

I'm assuming you're new to Suse, so you should be able to go to the Konsole and perform some commands and just copy paste the output into a post here. :)

You'll need to do the commands as root. Open the Konsole and type "su" and <enter> and it will ask you for your root password. Now you can do your SuperUser commands.
Please post the output to the following:

mount

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

This should help us get started.
Thanks.

i get the error message when windows is loading. the error message is "can't find autochk"

Hmm, doesnt sound like any relation to your Suse install. What did you do prior to your windows install?

Sounds like you are getting the Grub boot menu to load windows fine. Sounds like a windows issue to me. Try booting from your windows CD and running chkdsk (scandisk). It might help you get started.

i didn't have any problems before the suse install. everything was working fine. i'll try chkdsk and see what happens.

Did you resize your windows partition while installing SUSE? That might have caused your problem. Even though many times resizing a partition goes smoothly, sometimes there can be file corruption in the resized partition. If that's the problem, chkdsk might indeed be able to fix the problem. If chkdsk doesn't help, you might have to refresh your windows installation. I haven't had to do that since Win98, other than when installing a new motherboard.

Ok, I ran chkdsk, it said it found one or more errors, then I loaded windows and the same error came up. can't find autochk program, skipping autochk. Then it restarts. I don't think i resized the partition. I used partition magic, and made a EXT2 partition. I already had it partitioned during the initial windows install, with NTFS. I used partition magic and made it into the EXT2 format. By refresh do you mean reinstall, or will it install over the current version without data loss?

I need to do some research, but there used to be a way with previous version of Windows NT (XP is based on NTs structure) to do a "refresh" install which would be needed if doing something like changing a motherboard. If you just change the motherboard on NT, 2000, or XP it won't boot. So you have to do an install to refresh the hardware abstraction layer (hal) but it used to not require re-installing all of your apps. I just haven't done it on XP. You could check MSs knowedge base, or a 3rd party help site such as:
http://www.protonic.com/
http://forums.techguy.org/
http://forum.pcmech.com/
http://www.cybertechhelp.com/
or search google or ask jeeves for "changing a motherboard in Windows XP" or "refresh install of Windows XP" If I get a chance I will do some looking also. (Btw, I know you didn't say you changed your motherboard, but the refresh install is frequently discussed under that topic.):)

ok i found a website (http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/16969/) where several people had the same error after installing linux. There was one guy had installed SUSE 8.1 and he did this
Su Gin Ong Mar 25, 2004, 08:41 AM Message - Profile - Add Buddy - Alert Moderators



Re: Linux/Windows XP Hidden NTFS Partition Question
Haha I found a solution after scouring the Internet for guidance. All it takes is editing GRUB, the Boot Loader. Open YaST2 and go to "Boot Loader". You will have to enter ur root password.
There you will need to add a few new lines of code to enable booting to Windows and to unhide the Windows partition (manual/expert editing).

title Windows
unhide (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive

"hd0,0" means that your Windows partition is the first partition on ur first hard drive;
"makeactive" means Windows will be the default boot option (it will be selected when the boot menu appears)
"chainloader +1".. I'm not sure! But it has to do with the boot loaders

I want to know how to do this in SUSE 10. And if it will work.

I checked YaST2 partitioner, and it says my main C drive is hidden, I assume that I would need to change that, but I don't know how to.

Did you make the PartitionMagic boot disks? If you did, its really simple. Boot into them and right click on Window partition. Then click unhide. And that's it.

I gave up. I reinstalled windows.