I have a Windows XP Pro machine on which I installed Fedora Core 1 ( sometime ago ) to make it a dual boot machine. The machine was configured to have an NTFS partition and a FAT32 partition along with a partition for Fedora Core 1. Upon booting, the Grub bootloader would prompt for selection of either Windows or Fedora and things worked fine, until,I converted the FAT32 partition into an NTFS partion which then I split into a smaller FAT32 partition ( around 2 GB ) and an NTFS partition ( using Partition Magic 8.0 ), leaving the Linux partition untouched. Grub loader worked fine upon rebooting the machine the next time and booted the desired OS. However today ( the second time after changing and splitting the original partition ) when I started my machine, Grub would not provide an option to boot the desired OS - supporting only a minimal BASH-like editing mode. Get the following on the screen :

GRUB version 0.93 ( 639K lower / 523072K upper memory )

[Minimal BASH-like line editing is .......

grub>

instead of the window with the option to select the desired OS to boot.

I am not sure whether splitting the original FAT32 partition into an NTFS
and a smaller FAT32 partition has had anything to do with this. At this point I would like to boot Windows XP and retrieve data without Grub loader interfering or get Grub loader to boot Windows XP.
Is all lost ? Will reinstalling Fedora 1 ( with the existing reconfigured partition ) enable Grub loader to boot Windows XP and keep that partition intact. Thanks.

grub can't find your stage2 files....but you have the option of manual commands to get into linux then re-running grub see my rough tutorial for that.

In the meantime try
at boot press c for command for grub
type
root (hd0,X)

replace X with zero and record the response then redo command with 1 then with 2 etc and you should see responses for each file system type. You may have to go as high as (hd0,9) that should be enough

You do not supply enough info to carry on but report back with your results.

We will you that info to issue commands firstly to boot into linux then edit your menu.lst file or grub config file and hopefully, legs crossed reboot should reveal all?

Unfortunately I was not able to try out the suggestions that you had posted - by the time I got to read your post, I had tried restoring the MBR using fdisk /mbr; this operation failed and at that point I decided to restore my system to its original settings. Thanks for your help.

i have a grub question... red hat enterprise ws. was working fine this morning. got home, it locked up (ctrl+alt+backspace did nothing, in fact, nothing worked). restarted the computer from power button. restarted and immediately get "grub read error" after post. i can't use my rh cd because the drive reads it too quickly and needs to be slowed down (but i can't remember the command to do that or how to get to the coommand prompt...). at any rate my current plan is to make a grub boot disk and see what happens. does this sound like step in the right direction or is there something else i can do/try?

grub is trying to read your stage 1.5 or 2 file and can not.

I assume you can still reboot to grub menu screen?
and if you still know your etc/fstab file for your boot partition and your / partition then try
c for commands
root (hd0,0) #### (or whatever your boot partition is)
setup (hd0) #### to let grub see where the files are
boot####

assuming you can reboot now just check your /boot/menu.lst or /etc/grub.conf file is still ok

and then backup your mbr to floppy

I will amend my tutorial but here it is for you

insert a msdos or ext2 floppy and mount it
open a terminal and su to get root access
dd if=/dev/hda of=/home/your name/mbrhda bs=512 count=1
test it b4 putting on to floppy with
dd if=/home/your name/mbrhda bs=512 count=1 (as no output file specified it goes to screen) and you should see the word grub or lilo and some squiggles.

then copy that file to floppy anyway you like write protect it unmount it and make a second copy just for luck

I am having a similar problem and when i type
it says
I have tried to access my menu.lst file and grub.conf but it responds that they cannot be found.
Thanks for any help and sorry if i bumped this.

zetafunc says no longer need answer so its over to you.

you report hd(one) and grub counts from zero so did you make a typo?

2) tell us the bios boot order of your drives, whether they are Ide or SCsi or Sata
and do you have a boot disk or a rescue cd.

3) I don't have RH or Mdk but their cds should be able to be used as a rescue cd.

1. It is hd1,0 because i installed it on a second drive, first partition.
2. Sorry, im not sure how to tell this, but i dont have any SCSI devices, and didnt select any options about SCSI.
3. Yes, I have a rescue CD.

I was able to edit the menu.lst file, but it had no effect on what happened.
I got frustrated and gave up that attempt to go at it a different way. I reinstalled and chose Lilo instead of Grub, and it worked like a charm.

no worries but grub should if you have only used one drive used (hd0) not hd1.

well done in solving your boot loader issue if I can convert you here is a tutorial
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=237511

I have a problem about the Grub bootloader but that may different from above cases.

I try the GRUB tutorial and trouble-shooter in the link and still can't get it working.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=237511

I installed both WinXP and RedHat9 but there's NO bootloader pop up for me to select the OS.

I try to boot Linux with disc in rescue mode, I want to edit some files but I just can't find grub.conf and menu.lst

And I got problem with install the grub rpm package manually from the CD
error: unpacking of archive failed on file/usr/bin/mbchk;421de2ac: cpio: mkdir failed - read only file system

Thanks for your help.

fhleung thanks for interest in grub

more info needed......when bios goes to drive mbr what bootloader appears? ntloader or lilo or grub?

most rescue cd should allow the command chroot but if you are newbie......you may better off with a knoppix cd and that will allow you to see each partition directories and their contents in READ ONLY MODE.

you can put grub into mbr by using knoppix cd by just using a terminal

su #### knoppix being a cd does not need a passwd
grub
root (hdX,Y)
setup (hdX)

where X is 0 (zero) if you have only one drive or the bios boot order drive
Y is the partition that /boot is in typically 0


2) if this is too hard for you try reinstalling redhat and write down what you are doing

I don't use rh so can't help with fail message........but grub has to install......there are no better booters

Pay proper attention to the on-screen instructions. You choose whether to follow them or whether to skip the last step and not enter the chroot. In either case, if the rescue mode locates your Red Hat Linux system partition, it offers to mount the system. And it tells you where it mounts them. If you choose to mount the root partition yourself, don't forget to mount all partitions you need (e.g. if you have a separate /boot partition). Then, if you chroot into your system, GRUB config file is in /boot/grub/grub.conf, of course. Else it's located below your mount point, which is /something-you-choose/boot/grub/grub.conf.

And menu.lst is a file name you don't need. It's GRUB's original file naming.
The error message is clear, isn't it?

ntLoader always appear when I start, I just can not see the Grub looader.

The CD in rescue mode has command chroot option, and the system partition is mount in /mnt/sysXXX , I go there and can't not find grub.conf file so I not sure if I installed the grub loader.

Then post your /etc/fstab file, maybe you have a separate boot partition which you would need to mount within the chroot.

I boot up the macjine by knoppix CD in failsafe mode

I want to put grub into mbr by using knoppix cd by just using a terminal

su
grub
root (hdX,Y)

setup (hdX)
checking of /boot/grub/stage1 exist.........no
checking of /grub/stage1 exist ..........no

Thank you for help