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Bootloader Problem and Nvidia Driver Help

Well, I've finially decidedo try my hand at using Linux. To make things easier, I'll put my system configuration here at the beginning.
ASUS A8N-Premium SLI
eVGA Geforce 7900GT KO
AMD Athlon X2 4400+ Toledo
3GB DDR Dual-Channel RAM:
2x 512MB Crucial BallistiX
2x 1024MB Kingston HyperX

I chose PCLinuxOS due to Beryl, and installed it on a 160GB hard drive in my computer.
I have a total of three hard drives, with 7 partitions as follows:
Drive 1: SATA, Seagate, 160GB
Partitions:
Seagate 1 (Windows XP) 30GB
Seagate 2 58GB
Seagate 3 62GB
Drive 2: PATA, Seagate, 160GB
Media 1 (Random Files) 20GB
Media 2 (Linux Installation) 52GB
Media 3 83GB
Drive 3: PATA, Maxtor, 120GB
Maxtor 1 60GB
Maxtor 2 60GB

Originally, i was running only the SATA Seagate and the PATA Maxtor, and I just tonight added the other Seagate for Linux. Before installing Linux, if I tried to boot windows without a Windows XP Disk in DVD Drive #1, I would get a NTLDR IS MISSING error. Seemingly, this is because my Maxtor has the remnants of Windows 98SE on one partition, which is confusing the MBR.
I installed PCLinuxOS, and configured GRUB. Here's my configuration:
timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd1,6)/usr/share/gfxboot/themes/pclinuxos/boot/message
default 5

title PCLinuxOS
kernel (hd1,6)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=PCLinuxOS root=/dev/hda7 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd1,6)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd1,6)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=/dev/hda7
initrd (hd1,6)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd1,6)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=/dev/hda7 failsafe
initrd (hd1,6)/boot/initrd.img

title Windows XP (Seagate SATA)
root (hd0,0)
map (0x82) (0x80)
map (0x80) (0x82)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Linux works fine, except for my other issue which I will discuss later. Windows, however, no longer boots. I get a NTLDR IS MISSING error with or without the Windows XP disk in the drive. Reformatting any of the drives, except the Linux partition, is not in the books.

Second Issue:

I mainly installed PCLinuxOS to play around with Beryl. I cannot do this without installing drivers. I don't know how to install them. I downloaded the package from Nvidia's website because PCLinuxOS's package installer could not find the FTP site to download the package from. Was wondering if someone could give me simpoleton-level step-by-step run through.

Thanks for any and all help!
-Jake

Quote:

Originally Posted by JakeRadden (Post 2961641)

I get a NTLDR IS MISSING error with or without the Windows XP disk in the drive. Reformatting any of the drives, except the Linux partition, is not in the books.

Toasted your MBR? You'd have to run the XP repair from CD and only choose the X to fix boot files.

If you ever google for dual booting Linux and Windows you'll get a lot of convoluted instructions about running gparted and other stuff to make it work but what I used to find is that once you boot back into windows and edit the boot.ini of Windows, you can add a reference to the partition where your linux is installed (provided you understand how Windows references disk:partition) and linux can then work from the Windows boot menu.

Unfortunately, my XP installation WAS on Drive G in windows (I think that's what's causing my NTLDR problem) however I was switching my drives around and may have messed up my order in BIOS and with the cables... XP Setup detects 2 different installations of windows, and I'm not sure which one is XP. I suppose I can just try both.
And no, I don't know how Windows references partitions. I'd be grateful if you could explain that to me.

Ok new problem/development that I was hoping I could get some help with.
I fiddled around with GRUB, edited my menu.list to look like this:

Code:

timeout 10

color black/cyan yellow/cyan

gfxmenu (hd0,6)/usr/share/gfxboot/themes/pclinuxos/boot/message

default 1



title PCLinuxOS

kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=PCLinuxOS root=/dev/hda7 splash=silent vga=788

initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd.img



title linux-nonfb

kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=/dev/hda7 

initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd.img



title failsafe

kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=/dev/hda7 failsafe

initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd.img





title NTLDR Bootloader

root (hd1,0)

map (0x81) (0x80)

map (0x80) (0x81)

makeactive

chainloader +1

As you can see, one of my options is named NTLDR Bootloader. This is because I thought that would be my Windows XP boot option, but instead it actually loads NTLDR, with two options: My nonworking windows 2000 install and my "working" Windows XP Professional installation. Unfortunately, when I select my XP Pro install, I get an error saying that System32/Hal.dll is missing or corrupt; I'm figuring either that NTLDR is not pointing to the right installation of Windows or that I screwed something up completely. I was wondering if anyone could help me fix this problem with boot.ini. Here's my current one from my C: drive which actually does NOT contain Windows XP. That's on my uh, F: drive, I believe.

Code:

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

C:\="Microsoft Windows"

EDIT: Just wanted to say I just discovered I have 3 copies of NTLDR, boot.ini, etc. on three different hard drives. This is because I never re-formatted after pulling these from other machines. I cannot reformat either, due to files I have to save. One even still has the WINNT folder from Windows 2000 on it; and it is showing up in my repair console. My Windows XP install has an administrator password that I know, but is says that I am using an incorrect password in repair console. I'm completely lost here.

My guess is that if I can get in and edit the CORRECT boot.ini to hit for the CORRECT installation of Windows XP everything will be fix itself.

Well, I've fixed it. I added a whole bunch (7) more options to boot.ini with different drive/partition combinations and finally hit on the one that is windows XP.