CD-ROM address?

bobbyj99 · 04-19-2006, 11:38 AM

I'm trying to set my GRUB to boot to cd and I'm not sure exactly what the device would be called. I know that hard drives are (hd0,0) and floppies are (fd0) but what is the cd rom called. I have two and they are mounted at /dev/hdc and /dev/hdd, if anybody could help that would be awesome. I'm working on a dual boot with windows using a tutorial that would let me install windows after linux. If this works I will post about it and refer to the site I'm using. Thanks in advance

tamoneya · 04-19-2006, 12:12 PM

assuming your cdrom is ide it would be written the same way as a harddrive.
(hd0,0) (hd0,1) (hd1,0) or (hd1,1)

bobbyj99 · 04-19-2006, 04:41 PM

Thanks for the info, but unfortunately I must be setting up grub wrong cause it didn't work...I tryed to reboot and use the option to boot from cdrom and I got an error ( Error 21: selected disk does not exist) Im not exactly sure what the problem is maybe someone could direct me on that.

J.W. · 04-20-2006, 12:58 AM

If you want to boot from your CD, just change your boot sequence in BIOS, and make sure that the CD-ROM option is listed above the hard drive. When a (bootable) CD is present in the CD drive, it will boot, if the drive is empty, the system will just try the next device in the boot sequence

bobbyj99 · 04-20-2006, 01:22 PM

According to the tutorial I am using I can't allow the computer to boot to CD through BIOS I have to go through GRUB. The tutorial I am using is located here.

ioerror · 04-20-2006, 02:42 PM

I haven't look at this tutorial but if you just want to install Windows into an existing Linux system, just create a grub boot floppy, install Windows normally (i.e. boot from CD via BIOS). Afterwards, just boot the grub floppy and reinstall grub to the mbr.

bobbyj99 · 04-20-2006, 03:12 PM

Previously when I tryed to install windows first then linux every time I tryed to start windows I got an error:

Quote:

A problem has been detected and windows has shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.

Technical information:

***STOP: 0x0000007b (0xF7C4F640, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

And I wanted to try it a different way because I dont feel like formatting a bunch more times. If I can't get it to work the way I'm trying right now I'll give this a try. Thank you

J.W. · 04-21-2006, 02:24 AM

I think there's some confusion here. Assuming you are talking about section 3.3 of the tutorial, what the guy is saying is that if you boot up a PC with a bootable disk still in the CD drive, the machine will boot from it (the CD) rather than from the hard drive (which is where GRUB lives). In other words, if you leave the installation disk in the CD drive, the machine will not boot from the hard drive.

To change direction a little bit, if you are interested in setting up a dual boot Windows and Linux box, and it's the first time you've done it, it's much, much easier to install Windows first, then Linux. Windows expects to be in the first partition of the primary master drive, and although there are ways to get around it, if you main goal is to have both Linux and Windows installed on the same PC, just let Windows have its way. You can always go back later and change it. Good luck with it either way

bobbyj99 · 04-21-2006, 01:43 PM

Thanks for all the information but the tutorial says I have to boot the install cd through GRUB, I've try to install windows first but with no luck so I have decided to try this way.

All I need to know is how to boot to a CD through GRUB, pretend I can't do it through BIOS, I don't have a floppy drive and that I absolutely have to do it through GRUB.

Thank you for all the help so far.