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Iceman99one 08-19-2008 01:50 PM

Problems dual booting with Ubuntu and windows xp using two separate hard drives
 
Ok here is my problem--

I am new to linux and I had two IDE hard drives one running win xp home (40Gb seagate) and the other a blank drive(40Gb Western Digital). I wanted to run a dual boot configuration with win xp and ubuntu on separate drives. After reading many tutorials and asking a few questions I decided to set up the blank drive as master to install ubuntu on and the win drive as the slave when I ran the Install CD and went through the installation process. This seemed to be the easiest way to go about this dual boot.

During the installation everything seemed to be going well, i made sure to installl ubuntu onto the blank drive. If i remember correctly the blank drive appeared as hda0 and the win drive appeared as hdb0. After restarting my machine the grub boot menu appeared seemingly correct showing the option to boot into either Ubuntu or windows.

I can boot fine into Ubuntu but when I try to boot into windows I get this error message:

Error 21: Selected disk does not exist

Press any key to continue...

Any help is much appreciated...

Thanks a lot!

jailbait 08-19-2008 03:09 PM

Boot into Ubuntu and use the fdisk command to find out what partitions you have:

sudo fdisk -l

Then list the grub configuration file, /boot/grub/menu.lst to see where grub thinks Ubuntu and Windows are:

less /boot/grub/menu.lst

--------------------
Steve Stites

Iceman99one 08-19-2008 04:13 PM

Ok--
Here are my partitions shown with the fdisk -l command:

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000080

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id  System
/dev/sda1  *          1        4660    37431418+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2            4661        4865    1646662+  5  Extended
/dev/sda5            4661        4865    1646631  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x41172ba5

  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id  System
/dev/sdb1  *          1        4864    39070048+  7  HPFS/NTFS

And here is my grub configuration file:
Code:

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
#            grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
#            grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
#            and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default        0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout        10

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu
# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line)  and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
#      password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title        Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root          (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader  +1
#
# title        Linux
# root          (hd0,1)
# kernel        /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=f2a23c91-e393-4095-8f33-d9e3f5c61e8c ro

## Setup crashdump menu entries
## e.g. crashdump=1
# crashdump=0

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,0)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
##      alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
##      lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
##      lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
##      altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
##      howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
##      memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title          Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=f2a23c91-e393-4095-8f33-d9e3f5c61e8c ro quiet splash
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
quiet

title          Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic (recovery mode)
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=f2a23c91-e393-4095-8f33-d9e3f5c61e8c ro single
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

title          Ubuntu 8.04.1, memtest86+
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### 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/sdb1
title          Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
root            (hd1,0)
savedefault
makeactive
title          Ubuntu 8.04.1, memtest86+
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### 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/sdb1
title          Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
root            (hd1,0)
savedefault
makeactive
map            (hd0) (hd1)
map            (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader    +1

(END)

Thanks for your help!

Iceman99one 08-19-2008 07:52 PM

I fixed it!

It turns out that on on my dell desktop, by default, the secondary IDE controller is turned off. So I went into the installation menu that you have the option to enter just at startup. I turned the controller to Auto and... I now am able to boot into both windows and Ubuntu!

Thanks again for all your help!

Cheers!


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