Asus P4B266 mobo, P4 1.8Ghz

Windows XP installed on hd 1
Redhat 8 or 9 or mandrake 9 on hd 2

each OS booted exclusively (other drive unplugged).

Windows XP installed first, works, OK
drive removed

Linux installed, loops infinitely on boot - wtf

BIOS reset - linux boots perfectly fine
swapped drives, fired up windows XP - now that doesn't boot,
OK, reinstall, now it boots..

swapped drives again for Linux - infinite loop on boot again.

What gives? what is it that XP does to my PC that linux does not want to boot?

I've taken out all cards but video, changed video cards, disabled everything onboard, same shit.

Why are you swapping drives? Why don't you use a bootloader such as lilo or grub?

i had this problem a bunch when i first got linux. it's really irritating, but it can be fixed (i think). the problem is that lilo (or whatever bootloader you use) has to write things to the superblock of each bootable partition (or, in your case, entire hard drive) to communicate "yo, you can boot me, but only in a certain way." in this sense, dual booting is like dating a bitchy girl.

what i have to do w/ slackware to get this to work is:

1) install windows first (or recover it w/ windows xp disk) and get that functioning

2) then add the second hard drive

3a) install linux on the second hard drive (while the first one is still attached) and make a point of telling the bootloader (lilo, etc.) to write to the superblock (NOT THE MBR)

3b) to possibly recover your linux install, use a boot disk that should've gotten made during install; no bootdisk => pain to do this

4) this is where it gets mildly complicated, so just give these instructions a go:

read this post and follow the instructions about copying the first 512 bytes of the linux drive to the windows drive, etc.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ware+dual+boot

remember, being patient always helps (i know all about being from the "smash" school of problem solving).

hope this helps,
y-p

I don't think this is a boot loader issue because i get LILO/Grub booting, it's happens during detection / probing of devices.

The reason it doesn't happen when I try to install Linux is because i notice a message saying that it will probe devices later...i suppose that is during a regular boot, where it fails...

i think that something is happening with the bios, so maybe if there are hardware issues (jumper settings on the drives?), that could explain what's happening. for both systems to boot correctly independently (w/out using a bootloader to choose between them, right?) and then begin to malfunction when the hard drives are swapped => the only constant between them is on the mobo => bios issue.

if you're booting through lilo/grub to get to either system (i.e. you choose to boot windows from the lilo/grub menu), then this may be the problem i had guessed at in my first post.

if you post some stuff, like the error messages that are generated when it locks up, that would help diagnose too.

y-p

Third post

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ighlight=p4b66

When you swap drives, does your bios autodetect the "new"
drive correctly. If not, maybe you have to detect the drives
manually in bios, when you are swapping.

Whether it be seperate drives, or one drive with seperate partitions, the same thing happens,

I've tried putting linux on the end of the windows drive as well, booting from floppy, and it didn't help :|

Finally, after a year, I have stumbled upon the problem.

Linux now works, and it works in harmony with Windows.

I can't believe it.

It was the "Bios Update" Enabled / Disabled option in the bios.

If it's disabled, Linux loops infinitely, if it's enabled, everything is OK. Who would have thought.