Ladies and gentlemen,

After searching the ussual dual boot grub threads nothing seems to help this time around. I'm sure its simple however no matter what I set in the menu.lst for the w2k partition it does not boot. The Debian partition boots just fine

Output as follows for $ fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hdc: 80.0 GB, 80054059008 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 155114 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdc1 * 1 107897 54379993+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hdc2 107897 155114 23797400 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdc5 * 107897 153064 22764073+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdc6 153064 155104 1028128+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdc7 155105 155114 5008+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/hde: 20.4 GB, 20490559488 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 39703 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hde1 * 1 39703 20010280+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/hdf: 20.4 GB, 20490559488 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 39703 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdf1 1 39703 20010280+ 83 Linux


Output as follows for menu.lst

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.12-1-k7
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-1-k7 root=/dev/hdc5 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-1-k7
savedefault
boot

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.12-1-k7 (recovery mode)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-1-k7 root=/dev/hdc5 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-1-k7
savedefault
boot

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-1-386
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-386 root=/dev/hdc5 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-1-386
savedefault
boot

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-1-386 (recovery mode)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-386 root=/dev/hdc5 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-1-386
savedefault
boot

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hdc1
title Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
rootnoverify (hd2,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
map (hd0) (hd2)
map (hd2) (hd0)

the w2k partition is on /dev/hdc1 hense the (hd2,0)
does the three bootable partitions make conflict?

thanks in advance!!!

You have hdc, hdd and hdf (does this imply six hard-drives??), but what happened to hda and hdb?

The Debian installation is also on hdc, but it is being listed as (hd0,4). Have you tried using (hd0,0) for Windows (and skipping the virtual drive swapping)?

Is (hd2,0) the actual original automatic value, or did you change it?

It would be useful to have explicit information from you how many of what kind of hard-drives you have connected on what controllers. Usually just 2 IDE drives on master and slave...

Maybe you could try without the map commands, and see if that works? Just to isolate where exactly the problem is...

Do you get any kind of error message?

hde and hdf are actually connected to an onboard raid controller. Debian just thinks they are regular ide connectors which they phicicaly are.

hda and hdb are the cdrom and dvd player.

There are 4 hard drives in the system.

I also tried removing the mapping lines.

Still says hdc1 is not a valid partition.

Since it won't hurt to try (as long as you backup the menu list of course), try this out for the Windows entry:
The reason I suggest this is that, according to the combined info from fdisk and menu.lst, your hdc is (hd0), on which you have both Win2kPro and Debian installed. Since GRUB is booting Debian using (hd0,4), and Win2k is on the first partition of that same drive, then logically the Win entry should be (hd0,0). Since that is the first drive, Windows doesn't need to be fooled by a disk-swapping technique.

If it doesn't help, write down exactly what error message GRUB is giving, maybe that can lead somewhere.


Hth,
Mike

Thank you, I will give that a try!

How did you install w2k out there on hdc1? I seem to remember - but don't quote me - that Windows does not like to boot from anything other than the first two harddrives. That doesn't say it won't, just that "it doesn't like to". I'm not even 100% sure about this thought. Windows may be perfectly happy on a high numbered drive and I'm just remembering wrong.

If you did a native install of w2k to hdc1 then I'm not sure what your problem might be. But if you imaged a w2k install off some other disk or partition with Ghost, TrueImage, etc., and then restored to hdc1 then you might need to change your boot.ini file. Were this the case, I'd expect some terse and non-informative message like "OS not found" if you were booting from a Windows "standard" MBR. I don't know what the symptoms would be when attempting to boot via GRUB. Are you getting any error messages?

Indeed, it may very well be that Windows *is* booting (i.e. grub already exited and everything), and that sth. is going wrong there. Windows is known not to give much useful error messages in that case

The /dev/hdc? issue is merely because it is on the second (E)IDE interface.
Grub sees the same disk as hd0.

Windows requires that the system partition reside on a primary partition on the (BIOS) primary boot disk - nothing more. Sometimes we have to use mapping to convince it to boot - although not in this case.

I concur with michapma - that solution seems the most cogent.

After reading this, I agree that this would be the first place to start looking.

I had an issue once where I had a boot manager (XOSL) on my primary boot disk and it was trying to transfer to booting Windows off of a secondary disk. Windows did not like that one bit. It may have been solveable, but after 5 minutes of investigation I just decided to switch the boot order in BIOS (and also moved XOSL to that other disk).

BTW, Windows can boot out of a logical partition. I have two systems that do exactly this. However, if Windows had it's way it surely would not do this. If you want to boot out of a logical partition, you have to "convince" Windows to do it, and it will be kicking, screaming, and fighting you all the way!

Well the screen just hangs with :

Boot 'Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional'

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

I would need references to see what's going on (I say that as if I really knew what I were talking about, heh), but if you have trime maybe try just "root (hd0,0)" instead of "rootnoverify (hd0,0)".

Try also to verify that your hdc1 (Win2k NTFS) is on a primary partition, and not a logical one. I'm pretty sure it will be, but GRUB apparently can't boot Windows from a logical partition.

Sorry I don't have time to look up more stuff at the moment...

Let's have a look at the start of that partition - maybe you have hexedit (or equivalent) on Debian. If so, try posting the first screen of output from

00000000 EB 52 90 4E 54 46 53 20 20 20 20 00 02 08 00 00 .R.NTFS .....
00000010 00 00 00 00 00 F8 00 00 3F 00 FF 00 3F 00 00 00 ........?...?...
00000020 00 00 00 00 80 00 80 00 B2 8B 7B 06 00 00 00 00 ..........{.....
00000030 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 16 95 00 00 00 00 00 ........ .......
00000040 F6 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 C1 8C 8D F8 A6 8D F8 4E ...............N
00000050 00 00 00 00 FA 33 C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C FB B8 C0 07 .....3.....|....
00000060 8E D8 E8 16 00 B8 00 0D 8E C0 33 DB C6 06 0E 00 ..........3.....
00000070 10 E8 53 00 68 00 0D 68 6A 02 CB 8A 16 24 00 B4 ..S.h..hj....$..
00000080 08 CD 13 73 05 B9 FF FF 8A F1 66 0F B6 C6 40 66 ...s......f...@f
00000090 0F B6 D1 80 E2 3F F7 E2 86 CD C0 ED 06 41 66 0F .....?.......Af.
000000A0 B7 C9 66 F7 E1 66 A3 20 00 C3 B4 41 BB AA 55 8A ..f..f. ...A..U.
000000B0 16 24 00 CD 13 72 0F 81 FB 55 AA 75 09 F6 C1 01 .$...r...U.u....
000000C0 74 04 FE 06 14 00 C3 66 60 1E 06 66 A1 10 00 66 t......f`..f...f
000000D0 03 06 1C 00 66 3B 06 20 00 0F 82 3A 00 1E 66 6A ....f;. ...:..fj
000000E0 00 66 50 06 53 66 68 10 00 01 00 80 3E 14 00 00 .fP.Sfh.....>...
000000F0 0F 85 0C 00 E8 B3 FF 80 3E 14 00 00 0F 84 61 00 ........>.....a.
00000100 B4 42 8A 16 24 00 16 1F 8B F4 CD 13 66 58 5B 07 .B..$.......fX[.
00000110 66 58 66 58 1F EB 2D 66 33 D2 66 0F B7 0E 18 00 fXfX..-f3.f.....
00000120 66 F7 F1 FE C2 8A CA 66 8B D0 66 C1 EA 10 F7 36 f......f..f....6
00000130 1A 00 86 D6 8A 16 24 00 8A E8 C0 E4 06 0A CC B8 ......$.........
00000140 01 02 CD 13 0F 82 19 00 8C C0 05 20 00 8E C0 66 ........... ...f
00000150 FF 06 10 00 FF 0E 0E 00 0F 85 6F FF 07 1F 66 61 ..........o...fa
00000160 C3 A0 F8 01 E8 09 00 A0 FB 01 E8 03 00 FB EB FE ................
00000170 B4 01 8B F0 AC 3C 00 74 09 B4 0E BB 07 00 CD 10 .....<.t........
00000180 EB F2 C3 0D 0A 41 20 64 69 73 6B 20 72 65 61 64 .....A disk read
00000190 20 65 72 72 6F 72 20 6F 63 63 75 72 72 65 64 00 error occurred.
000001A0 0D 0A 4E 54 4C 44 52 20 69 73 20 6D 69 73 73 69 ..NTLDR is missi
000001B0 6E 67 00 0D 0A 4E 54 4C 44 52 20 69 73 20 63 6F ng...NTLDR is co
000001C0 6D 70 72 65 73 73 65 64 00 0D 0A 50 72 65 73 73 mpressed...Press
--- hdc1 --0x0/0xCF7176600----------------------------------------------

Well that certainly is the NT boot sector record.
Seems like grub isn't transfering control - if you have access to the keyboard, type in "boot" (no quotes) and hit enter" - if it works, add "boot" to the menu.lst for a permanent fix.
This shouldn't be necessary, but try it.