Okay, I'm trying to learn linux, so i installed suse 8.2/kde on my laptop.. Then decided to install RH9 on my main computer. I successfully installed it (wasn't too hard since it was pretty easy) and I was testing it out when I decided to reboot into windows to finish up some stuff for work. Well...it didn't want to boot. It shows chainloader +1 and then tries to boot from the CD and then crashes..


Here are the contents of my grub.conf, device.map and menu.lst:


grub.conf:
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,6)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8)
root (hd0,6)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdb=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img
title DOS
rootnoverify (hd0,5)
chainloader +1


device.map:
(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd0) /dev/hda


menu.lst
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,6)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8)
root (hd0,6)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdb=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img
title DOS
rootnoverify (hd0,5)
chainloader +1

I have 2 HDs broken down into the following partitions (copied from hardware browser):

Name: Size (MB) Type

/dev/hda
hda1 57232 Extended
hda5 9052 ntfs
hda7 102 ext3
hda8 15853 ext3
hda6 22544 ntfs
hda9 761 linux-swap
unpartitioned 8927 free space

/dev/hdc
hdc2 9570 Extended
hdc5 9570 ntfs
hdc1 9523 fat32



Hopefully this will be enough information.. This is all very frustrating and I can figure it out. I would just wipe all the drives, except there are things that I can't replace and would need to get into windows to backup before I wiped the drives.


Thanks a Million in advance,
Jeff

Try changing:
rootnoverify (hd0,5)

to:
rootnoverify (hd0,4)

well, in case u can't get back into windows, get online and go to http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/info/redhat.html#down and download an rpm for ntfs reading for your kernel version (u can find your kernel version by type uname -r in a terminal)

after downloading it, cd into the directory where u put the file and do rpm -ivh blabla.rpm
u should see a bunch of #### and 2 100%'s meaning it installed successfully

then mount your ntfs partitions like so:
make some mnt directories with these separate commands: mkdir /mnt/hda5
mkdir /mnt/hda6
mkdir /mnt/hdc5
mount /dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5
mount /dev/hda6 /mnt/hda6
mount /dev/hdc5 /mnt/hdc5

then u can browse those mount directories and get whatever u need out of your windows partitions, but them on a disk or cd and then u should be able to safely do whatever u need to do with windows (including wiping it)

also, u have a fat32 partition, mount that like so (if there is anything u need from it)
mkdir /mnt/hdc1
mount /dev/hdc1 /mnt/hdc1


also, is the windows partitions primary or logical partition because from what i see it must be logical and windows usually doesn't boot from logical partitions


edit: yes, do as the above post says, that should solve the problem (and prove that windows can boot from logical partitions)

Search on here for my posts, subject starting "GRUB hates me". I think your solution is in there, though you'll need to change partition numbers.