stop windows xp from mounting my linux partition

toolmania1 · 06-15-2005, 08:57 AM

I have installed linux red hat 9.0 on one partition and windows xp on another partition on the same hard drive. Sometimes, Windows xp will not boot and will complain about an unmountable boot volume. It was suggested to tell windows to stop booting the linux partition. I went into the adminstrative tools in windows, but I could not find where to tell windows to stop mounting the linux partitions. Where can I do this in windows? (Windows works some of the time and linux works all of the time)

jonaskoelker · 06-15-2005, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Windows works some of the time and linux works all of the time

We know that--that's why we use GNU/Linux

(sorry)

Quote:

It was suggested to tell windows to stop booting the linux partition

<snip> could not find where to tell windows to stop mounting the linux partitions.

Well, booting and mounting are essentially unrelated--can you tell me which one you mean?

Exactly how do you boot into windows? (which bootloader, which options, which config files ...)
How do you boot Linux?

At which step does the error occur?

Fiddling with the windows NT bootloader generally means editing C:\boot.ini

--Jonas

toolmania1 · 06-15-2005, 10:04 AM

The Windows XP screen will show for about 2 seconds and then reboot itself (unless windows decides to load up that time). I was told to tell windows to stop trying to mount the linux partition. Supposedly, that option is in control panel -> admin tools -> computer management somewhere. But, I cannot find where to shut off the partitions from being mounting in windows. That is all I need to know and I will be good to go.

trevelluk · 06-15-2005, 10:52 AM

Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management

Expand the "Storage" entry in the tree on the left, and select the "Disk Management" option. Right click the offending partition, and select "Change Drive Letter and Path" from the popup menu. Highlight the entry in the popup box displayed, and click "Remove"

I should point out that this problem may be caused by something else entirely - just don't ask me what (possibly your bootloader settings?)

rjlee · 06-15-2005, 12:02 PM

You can also change mount options through My Computer -> Network Drives IIRC

toolmania1 · 06-16-2005, 10:01 AM

For some reason, when I went into the disk management, windows would not allow the "change drive letter" option to be selected. It was greyed out. The only option it will let me do is to delete the partition. This is very odd. Also, in the boot.ini it only lists Windows as the operating system. I also forgot to mention that I used grub to set up linux. So, the boot.ini file looks to be ok. Why windows will not let me change the drive letter on the linux partitions, I am not sure????

cs-cam · 06-16-2005, 10:03 AM

Post you /boot/grub/grub.conf or /boot/grub/menu.lst (whichever file you have). That's what we need to help

trevelluk · 06-16-2005, 10:06 AM

The chances are that you've got a different problem then. The reason why you can only select "delete" is that Windows can't read the partition, and so doesn't let you do anything with it. I suspect that your bootloader settings may be the issue (not the Windows bootloader, but either GRUB or LILO). IIRC, RH9 uses GRUB, so the relevant file should be /boot/grub/menu.lst

Post that here, and someone should be able to spot the problem.