Cannot boot windoze from GRUB (2 HDDs)
 

hey guys,
i installed suse 10.3 a week ago. but i cannot install windoze from grub.
i've got 2 hdd's.
linux and windoze installed on different hard disks.

please help me...

thanx!

Please excuse me if I seem thick-headed.

Do you mean that you have windows installed, but you can't boot windows using grub? Or, do you mean you have a disk you want to install windows on, but you don't know how to do it now that you have OpenSuse 10.3 installed.

Also, please post the output of 'fdisk -l', and possibly also /etc/fstab (just the part that refers to hard disk partitions and their mount points).

I had the same problem.... my grub did not boot windows from other hard drive...Had to install grub on the drive having windows

sry 4 the late reply...

i've got windoze installed on the other hard disk. actually the i've the linuxz mbr on 1hdd and windows mbr on other.
so everytime i've to shift the bootable hard disk from the bios setup.
wenever i boot windows from grub, it says: disk read error.

and i've checked the path for windows boot, its fine.
the entry in the grub is "chainloader hd(0,1)+1".

and i dont know what "chainloader" command is for??

i tried installing grub on the other hdd, but windows did nt boot.

if you have linux on the first hdd and windoze on the second hdd you will have to map the drive so windoze thinks it is the c: drive ie

title windoze
root (hd0,1)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
makeactive
chainloaders +1

This may help

http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p15.htm

thanx man! that worked...
now i can boot windowz on the second hdd from 1st. :D

PS: sry 4 da late reply...campus placements were going on. :P

I have a similar problem, but that did not work!

In short: there was a PC with one hd, dual boot (Linux FC8, Win XP) with GRUB, a second hd was added (not by me) and... suprise:
the new disk was /dev/sda and the old one (with the operating systems) was seen as /dev/sdb by linux.
Grub was able to boot linux (even if linux should be now in (hd1,1) and no more in (hd0,1) but no more Windows (honestly not a major problem for me, but for the other users who need Windows).

I modified the /boot/grub/grub.conf (the file where menu.lst actually points):

title WinXP
root (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

but did not work (I got an error like "unrecognizable syntax")
and then in sequence:

title WinXP
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1

title WinXP
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

title WinXP
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

with the same result. In the end I switched the cables so that the old disk with the systems is now (hd0). Effectively linux sees it now again as /dev/sda. Then I reverted to the original grub.conf syntax:

title WinXP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

and it freezes: when I select windows I get:

booting WinXP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

GRUB


and does not go further (it does not write "GRUB>", only "GRUB")

Do you have any idea on how to fix it?


PS: I used "chainloader" not "chainloaders". Is it an error of mine?