Getting 64-bit GRUB to boot Windows XP on a second HD?

bskrakes · 09-26-2006, 09:51 AM

Ah I gotchya! I thought you installed it with the other OS in there already. I was like it prompts you for dual boot during install.

Cheers

Tom "Techno" Earl · 09-26-2006, 12:33 PM

Hi guys,

just a slight problem,

I can now dual boot, but every other time I get:

Error 21: Selected Disk does not exist

It boots windows for a while and then suddenly shutsdown, restarts and then I get this error, I can boot Linux first time, it's just every other time, it won't boot windows!!

I'm sorry to keep bugging you, but you've all been a great help!

Thanks

Tom "Techno" Earl · 10-18-2007, 12:57 PM

Sorry to be a pain! But...

How would I get GRUB to boot the windows disk first, there is a setting called "Default" which is set to "0", should I set it to "1"?

I think that should do it, if it wont, please tell me!!

Thanks again for the support!

Tom

Lenard · 10-18-2007, 02:30 PM

Yes, one can simply edit GRUB to boot to any possible menu item choice, if Windows is the second choice(1) then all should be OK. One can also rename 'Other' to 'Windows' if desired.

For this: 'Error 21: Selected Disk does not exist' some additional editing GRUB to may be needed, but you need to post the grub.conf file and the device.map file found in the same location (/boot/grub/) for one to be sure. The output from the typed command 'fdisk -l' is also helpful with this issue.

Tom "Techno" Earl · 10-19-2007, 04:56 AM

Hi all,

That default setting worked nicely!

I found out what the error 21 was...

I had a faulty disk, it would start, then stop working, after about 10 mins, it would start again, weird

, but, I got a new HD, and that's working beautifully!

Thanks for all your help

Tom

saikee · 10-19-2007, 07:52 AM

Section A of this thread describes details of installing Linux and Windows to separate disks.

You sound to have the problem licked.

bskrakes · 11-07-2007, 04:27 PM

Yes that makes sense! Sorry if I seemed rude, didn't meant to be!

Tom "Techno" Earl · 05-19-2008, 03:37 PM

Hey,

Sorry to bug y'all again!

I've just upgraded to FC9, I now cannot boot my Windoze HD.

I now have reconfigured my hardware slightly. I now have 2 SATA drives, 1 x 350GB Linux, 1 x 80GB shared and 1 x 160GB IDE windoze.

Here are the ouptuts to the commands you asked for earlier:

$ /sbin/fdisk -l

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000d064d

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          25      200781   83  Linux
/dev/sda2              26         417     3148740   83  Linux
/dev/sda3             418         482      522112+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4             483       38913   308697007+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5             483       32777   259409556   83  Linux
/dev/sda6           32778       37999    41945683+  83  Linux
/dev/sda7           38000       38652     5245191   83  Linux
/dev/sda8           38653       38913     2096451   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00087c7e

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb4   *           1           1           0    0  Empty
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Disk /dev/sdc: 164.6 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3bdeb6ce

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *           1       20022   160826683+   7  HPFS/NTFS

$ cat /etc/grub.conf

Code:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda2
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.25.3-18.fc9.i686)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.25.3-18.fc9.i686 ro root=UUID=d0f2c535-0ef5-4128-b876-6e163ea48920 rhgb quiet
        initrd /initrd-2.6.25.3-18.fc9.i686.img
#title Fedora (2.6.25-14.fc9.i686)
#       root (hd0,0)
#       kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.25-14.fc9.i686 ro root=UUID=d0f2c535-0ef5-4128-b876-6e163ea48920 rhgb quiet
#       initrd /initrd-2.6.25-14.fc9.i686.img
title Windoze
        rootnoverify (hd0,0)
        chainloader +1

$ cat /boot/grub/device.map

Code:

(fd0)   /dev/fd0
(hd0)   /dev/sda
(hd1)   /dev/sdb
(hd2)   /dev/sdc

Hope that's been enough help for you to help!

Thanks

Tom

saikee · 05-19-2008, 06:56 PM

According to your Grub's device.map the 3rd disk (hd2) is the device sdc and sdc1 is the only partition that has ntfs filing system. Thus your Windows is in (hd2,0) or /dev/sdc1.

To boot it the /etc/grub.conf should have the following lines (red is the alteration, blue is the addition)

Code:

title Windoze
        rootnoverify (hd2,0)
map (hd2) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd2)
        chainloader +1

Tom "Techno" Earl · 05-20-2008, 02:56 AM

Hi Saikee,

I just tried your suggestion, it came up with error 22: No Such Partition...

Seems there is something strange going on, I've tried nearly every possibility I can think of! Maybe some fresh eyes on the subject would help...

Thanks

Tom

saikee · 05-20-2008, 06:21 AM

I know for a fact that the disk order may be changed in the Bios automatically if a hard disk is inserted or withdrawn.

Therefore the device.map derived by Grub may not be up to date.

The sure fire method to find this out is to get it from the horse's mouth. In other word you talk to Grub directly in a Grub prompt. To get a Grub prompt you have to disable the following commands in the /etc/grub.conf by adding a # in front

Code:

#splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu

Once done that the boot screen turns to text mode and by pressing the "c" key you drop yourself into a Grub prompt

In a Grub prompt you can boot any PC system directly. So the first thing is to ask Grub to display the partition layout of all the 3 disks by commands

Code:

geometry (hd0)
geometry (hd1)
geometry (hd2)

If the (hd2) shows up only one partition with type No 7 then that will be your MS Windows and you can enter the lines at Grub prompt to fire it up as

Code:

rootnoverify (hd2,0)
map (hd2) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd2)
chainloader +1
boot

If (hd1) has it then change the hd2 references above to hd1.

The geometry statements should reproduce the partition layout of the Linux command "fdisk -l" except the partition references are to Grub's convention.

Let me say this, as I have told everybody, that there is no installed PC operating system in existence that cannot be booted by Grub manually in a Grub prompt. The manual instructions are listed in /etc/grub.conf. All you need to do is to type the lines exactly as they appear in the /etc/grub.conf and then add the command "boot" at the end as the green light to Grub to fire up that system. There is nothing to it.

Tom "Techno" Earl · 05-21-2008, 04:16 PM

Hey all!

Success!! I have tried the geometry statements you suggested, that shed some light on the subject. It seems I was mistaken. Linux has been on hd0 since it was installed, and windows started on hd2, then for some reason changed to hd1. I have put the updated grub.conf entry below:

Code:

title Windoze
      map (hd1) (hd0)
      map (hd0) (hd1)
      rootnoverify (hd1,0)
      chainloader +1
      makeactive
      boot

This seems to work perfectly, hope that can be of some help to somebody as well as me!

Thanks for all the help!!

Tom

saikee · 05-21-2008, 06:57 PM

Glad to see you got it sorted.

If there is something difficult in Linux it cannot be the booting!