Hi Everyone,

I'm having trouble booting into Windows and I know little about Linux. Please bear with me and explain to me (step by step) what I need to do to get my Windows back!!!

Here is my case:

I've just installed Fedora Core 1 on my PC, Linux boots up fine, but now I can't boot into Windows XP.

I have an unusual partition where both my Windows and Linux are installed on extended partitions. Here is a table of my partitions obtained when Linux installation wizard is examining my partitions:


......Hard.Drives....................Type...............Size.........Start........End
===================================================
...>/dev/hda
...........Free..........................Free.Space.......8...............1............1.
............>/dev/hd1................Extended......15155..........2.........1933
..................../dev/hda5..........ntfs...............9154..........2.........1168
..................../dev/hda6..........ext3..............6001.......1695......1933
............../dev/hda2.................ntfs.............16002.......1934......3973
............../dev/hda3.................vfat...............7005.......3974......4866


I have 4 partitions, 2 on primary and 2 on extended.
- hda2 and hda3 are my logical drives (on primary)
- hd5 is my Windows XP (on extended)
- hd6 is my Linux (Fedora Core 1) (on extended)

*********************************************************

I searched online and was able to find the commands to pull out the GRUB.conf file, here is the code to boot Windows (red = added by me since some postings sugguested doing so, had to learn vi to modify the file, that was some experience!)
________________________
title=DOS
map (hd0,0) (hd0,4)
map (hd0,4) (hd0,0)
rootonverify(hd0,4)
chainloader +1
_________________________

When I try booting into to Windows, the code stops at charinloader +1 and nothing happends after that, just the curser blinking.... is that the way it suppose to be? I sure did't see windows booting up though!

Then I tried
__________________________
title=DOS
map (hd0,0) (hd0,4)
map (hd0,4) (hd0,0)
rootonverify(hd0,4)
makeactive
chainloader +1
_________________________

I get: [Error 12: Invalid device requested]
[ press any key to continue]
and press any key takes me back to Grub boot loader.


I hope I have enough information here for you to get a place to start.

Any of you know what the problem is? and how I can go about fixing it?

I was stupid enough not to copy out myDocuments from windows before linux installation 'cause I actually trusted linux to install properly... and now I can't afford to wipe out my windows. However, if I can boot into windows just once and get myDocuments out, I can wipe out both Windows and Linux and repartition my computer in a more standard way (ie, install operating systems on primary).

Someone please help me with this!!

Thank you in advance!!

maybe this will help. Ive installed and wiped out enough distros to make yer head spin.
. a few times when Ive deleted a linux partition, the boot loader would get messed up and nothing would boot. i fixed this by booting off my win xp install disk, and used the recovery mode to get to a DOS prompt. there i used " fixmbr" which .... fixed my master boot record.... and reboot to windows. this saved my butt more than once, hope it helps.
cheers

Hi, I've tried the command, it gives me a warning saying that I shouldn't mess with this command unless I know what I'm doing, which I don't.... are you sure it's not going to mess up anything?
(forgive me for being too cautious, I really don't want to loss what's in windows...) Thanks!

Ok, I've given up, could somebody help me to find out a way to remove Linux and make Windows XP load again? I'm sure I can't simply remove the partition, I have to change the boot record to point to windows startup again, but how do you do that? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

well, I'm no windows guru er anything, but that command worked for me three times now.
I'd hate for you to loose your data, but it sounds like you have the same problem I had,(messed up master boot record) . and <fixmbr> should work.
good luck

Thanks for the suggestion, before I go ahead and run it, I just wanna double check something. When you say loose my data you mean the data in Linux right? I need to keep my Windows files.... so by running fixmbr I won't loose any of my windows data?? Right?

sorry for not clarifying that, i was referring to your window$ partition. running "fixmbr" should not touch anything other than the boot sector. and i don't think you're in danger of loosing your window$ OS. however, your linux boot-loader will be overwritten (no more grub or lilo at boot up). the puter will startup as before you installed linux.
as with anything, there's no guaranty
cheers

I found a similar situation discussed in LinuxFormat magazine (which I highly recommend despite its priceyness).

They offered a "Prevention" and a "Cure":

If you haven't already installed Fedora, take the time to boot up with a live distro open a terminal and type:
# fdisk -l /dev/hda (where hda is the disk you will be installing to)

The output will give you the number of heads, sectors/track, and cylinders. Write 'em down.

Then when you begin your install of Fedora, type:
boot: linux hda=[# cylinders], [# heads],[# sectors/track]

It appears that sometimes Fedora has a problem detecting the drive's geometerycorrectly and by detecting it yourself you bypass that and any other potential problems that may occur by allowing it to guess.

If you have already installed Fedora, well you're just screwed.. just kidding.

Boot into Linux, open a terminal, su to root, and type:
# sfdisk -d /dev/sda | egrep -v '^(Warning|DOS)' | sfdisk --no-reread -H255 /dev/hda

This should write the correct geometery back to the disk and hopefully solve your problem.

Check it out:
http://lwn.net/Articles/86835/

sam