Hi,

I think this is a very helpful forum. On my search to solve this problem I found many useful remedies for Linux woes.

Here is my doozie -

I am unable to boot to either dev/sda3 (Linux) or dev/sda1 (Windows)


I have a Soyo P4S-Dragon Ultra motherboard w / HPT372 onboard ATA RAID controller

IDE 1 - Maxtor 40GB 4500RPM
IDE 2 - DVD/CD

ATA RAID 0
IDE 3 - Maxtor 120GB 7200RPM x 2


From "fdisk"

[root@localhost root]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 240.0 GB, 240068198912 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 29186 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1275 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 2682 29186 212901412+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3 1276 2550 10241437+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 2551 2681 1052257+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/sda5 2682 5231 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 5232 11606 51207156 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 11607 16323 37889271 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda8 16324 20530 33792696 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda9 20531 24737 33792696 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda10 24738 29186 35736561 7 HPFS/NTFS

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 2223 4865 21229866 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 2 2222 17840182+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 2 2222 17840151 b Win95 FAT32

Partition table entries are not in disk order



I have RedHat 9 installed on /dev/sda3 and Windows XP installed on /dev/sda1. The HPT RAID drivers were installed by "linux expert text" install.

I choose to install OSes on the RAID because of performance issues with my 4500RPM drive on the normal IDE chain. Plus, I make sure to backup weekly.

My motherboard BIOS is set to SCSI in 'boot order'.

I fire up the machine, I see the HPT BIOS load up, and then I assume GRUB loads ( I just get a blinking cursor in the upper-left hand corner). 10 seconds later I get an error about being 'unable to read partition'. It asks me to continue; I continue to the GRUB screen, but It looks like it's been through a war (the text is somewhat scrambled). From this point, I reboot with the floppy.

The Linux boots fine from a floppy. So I check grub.conf which reads as follows -

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd1,2)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda3
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda3
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,2)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8)
root (hd1,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=/dev/sda3 hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi hde=noprobe hdf=noprobe hdg=noprobe hdh=noprobe
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd1,1)
chainloader +1


I think that GRUB is just pointing to the wrong devices. As far as I know " root (hd x,y) "
x=device and y=partition ?


When I go into the GRUB command line to check / fix -


GRUB version 0.93 (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB
lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
completions of a device/filename.]

grub> find /boot/grub/menu.lst
(hd1,2)

grub> root (hd1,2)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub> setup (hd1)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd1)"... 16 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd1) (hd1)1+16 p (hd1,2)/boot/grub/stage2
/boot/grub/grub.conf"... succeeded
Done.


I've tried to install GRUB again, and am just stuck My wife will kill me if I can't boot through the RAID.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Fuzz