Installed Suse 9.1 along side XP

DocShock · 01-21-2005, 07:39 AM

Yesterday I received a copy of Suse Personal 9.1, which being a newbie, I was very excited about installing. My intention was to install Suse along side my Windows XP SP2 so that I could retain all my XP files and info and use the Suse OS to teach myself about Linux.

I'm going to try to be as specific as I can about what I have and what I did.

Here is what I have:

Dell 4600 Pentium 4 w/ 512MB RAM and 30GB Single Partitioned hard drive (NTFS) - the PC came pre-installed w/ Service Pack 1 and has since been upgraded to Service Pack 2 without any problems. I was currently using 5.46GB of the 30GB. Note: I store my music, pics, etc. on an external hard drive.

The Suse manual said that it could easily be installed along side windows xp and that the YAST partitioning setup would automatically choose a good partition configuration for me.

Here's the steps I took to install Suse:

1) Defragged my Windows XP - I do this frequently, as I like to keep my system running in tip top shape.

2) Rebooted and set my BIOS to boot from CD so that I could install Suse

3) Began installation of Suse

4) The partition config it suggested was this: 1) Resize partition/dev/hda2 o 13.1GB, 2) Create extended partition 15.4GB (dev/hda3), 3) Create swap partition 1006.0MB on /dev/hda5, 4) Create root partition 14.4 GB (/dev/hda 6 w/ reiser). - I posted this configuration on a Linux forum just to be sure and was told that it looked fine for my purposes, so I went ahead with the installation.

5) Once the installation was done I rebooted and Suse worked great, no problems at all

6) Then I re-booted to test my Windows XP SP2 and when I choose to boot to it I got the error: A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer, unmounted_boot_volume...if this is the first time etc etc...technical information *** STOP: 0x000000ED (Ox82F4FC08, 0xC000014F, 0x00000000, 0x00000000

7) I was shocked to see this since I followed all the directions exactly as the manual said, at first I thought that XP had been totally over-written, but then I booted into Linux and went to "My Computer" and check the Windows Drive (C

and everything was still there - I can see all the files and folders and when I checked the properties it says that there's approximately 6GB of info on that drive, with about 7GB free space - this seems to be right considering the resize was to be 13.1GB.

I have no idea what caused this and I am basically having a nervous breakdown because I'm scared all my info will be lost. What's even worst is that I can see all my Windows files and folders, but I just can't access my XP operating system to get to them.

If anyone can help me at all I would be greatly appreciative. I just need to know how to fix (if that's what is required) Windows XP so that I can access that OS again.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!!!

JunctaJuvant · 01-21-2005, 07:48 AM

There is a SuSE 9.1/Windows XP dual boot FAQ in the Suse/Novell sub-section on this forum. If you haven't allready seen it, it may be worth while to read it.
Hope that helps.

[edit]
Removed windows recovery console part. Not relevant. And do Dells ship with a Windows XP recovery cdrom?
[/edit]

abisko00 · 01-21-2005, 07:55 AM

As it is not that obvious in the above mentioned HowTo, I would like to point out that the most probable reason for a not starting Windows is this:

http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/0...booting91.html

However, the error message you get is somehow different...it is worth reading the HowTo anyway!

DocShock · 01-21-2005, 09:18 AM

Thanks very much for the replies. I have a few questions about the information at

http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/0...booting91.html

1) If this happens not be the problem and I perform this update fix could it further complicate things, or will nothing change

2) Regarding the quick solution:

"One quick solution is to activate the LBA or large access mode under which the hard disk was previously addressed for the hard disks in the computer's BIOS. It is important that the hard disk values not be set to "AUTO".

How do I know if my BIOS has this option, where would it appear?

3) If I use the Floppy disc driver update option can I just simply cut and paste the

"gunzip -c parted.img.gz >/dev/fd0"

command. Please understand that I am 100% new to Linux and have not even had a chance to check out the command prompt.

Do think the chances of this working will be good? I notice it said that this can occur when the Windows portion is larger than 8GB - mine is 13GB approx, so that makes sense.

abisko00 · 01-21-2005, 09:27 AM

to 1.): you will be informed if the system needs to be repaired before anything is done. If I remember correctly, the software does not even take you to the fix dialog if everything is fine.

to 2.): hmm, my BIOS doesn't even have this option. But it should be somewhere in the drives section.

to 3.): if you are in the same directory with parted.img.gz, you may simply copy&paste the command. Otherwise you need to provide the full path to the file.

Good luck!

DocShock · 01-21-2005, 09:41 AM

One more quick question. No matter where I save the fix I still write the command out as

"gunzip -c parted.img.gz >/dev/fd0"

or would parts of the command change depending on where the file is located?

Again, I'm totally new to Linux and haven't even downloaded and saved a file yet in this OS.

Could you give me an example perhaps, if the command would be different depending on where I save it.

Thanks soooo much!!! I've been in a state of shock since last night when this happened...and this information is giving me some hope. I am so worried I'm going to lose all my programs and settings and have to start all over again!

abisko00 · 01-21-2005, 10:09 AM

Quote:

One more quick question. No matter where I save the fix I still write the command out as

"gunzip -c parted.img.gz >/dev/fd0"

or would parts of the command change depending on where the file is located?

No! As I said, the command works if you are in the same directory as the file. Let's say the file is in /home/<username> :

If you open konsole (or xterm or shell or however the window with the command line might be called), you should see something like this:

Code:

<computer's name>@<username>:~>

The '~' sign means that you are located in your own homedirectory. This is the same as /home/<username>. If you type 'ls' (the same as 'dir' in DOS), you should see the file parted.img.gz listed. In this case you can use the command unchanged.

If the file is located elsewhere, you may change to its location using the 'cd' command (change directory) or type the location as part of the command:

Code:

<computer's name>@<username>:~>gunzip -c /data/downloads/parted.img.gz > /dev/fd0

'/dev/fd0' is your floppy drive and '>' directs the output of the command 'gunzip' to it.

I hope this helped. In general it would be advisable to read a nice introductory book about Linux

Have fun!

DocShock · 01-21-2005, 10:16 AM

Thanks for the info (and your patience). I can't wait to get home and try this, god I hope this works.

My intention was to get a Linux book as soon as I had Suse up and running - I wanted to have it installed and able to use the book to teach myself. Needless to say, now that I can't get back to my XP partition, that has unfortunately been put on hold.

Thanks again! I'll keep you posted once I get home and try this.