I have a set up with Windows XP on hda1 and Mepis Linux on hda3. With GRUB loaded in the mbr of hda. Mepis runs fine when I select it in GRUB, but WIndows XP won't boot at all. It just loads the configuration options and then it just sits there.

At this point I don't really care what happens to my linux partition, I just want to know what would be the quickest way to get XP to boot again.

Post the contents of /boot/grub/menu.lst please.

default saved
timeout 15
color cyan/blue white/blue
foreground ffffff
background 0639a1
splashimage /boot/grub/boot.xpm.gz

title MEPIS at hda3, kernel 2.6.7
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.7 root=/dev/hda3 nomce psmouse.proto=imps quiet splash=verbose vga=791
initrd (hd0,2)/boot/initrd.splash
savedefault

title Windows at hda1
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
savedefault

title MEMTEST
kernel /boot/memtest86.bin

title Use a qwerty keyboard with GRUB
setkey y y
setkey Y Y
setkey q q
setkey Q Q
setkey w w
setkey W W
setkey a a
setkey A A
setkey semicolon semicolon
setkey colon colon
setkey z z
setkey Z Z
setkey m m
setkey M M
setkey comma comma
setkey less less
setkey period period
setkey greater greater
setkey slash slash
setkey bracketright bracketright
setkey backslash backslash
setkey doublequote doublequote
setkey 1 1
setkey exclam exclam
setkey 2 2
setkey at at
setkey 3 3
setkey numbersign numbersign
setkey 4 4
setkey dollar dollar
setkey 5 5
setkey percent percent
setkey 6 6
setkey caret caret
setkey 7 7
setkey ampersand ampersand
setkey 8 8
setkey asterisk asterisk
setkey 9 9
setkey parenleft parenleft
setkey 0 0
setkey parenright parenright
setkey minus minus
setkey backquote backquote
setkey tilde tilde
setkey braceright braceright
setkey question question
setkey braceleft braceleft
setkey quote quote
setkey underscore underscore

title Utiliser un clavier azerty avec GRUB
setkey y y
setkey Y Y
setkey a q
setkey A Q
setkey z w
setkey Z W
setkey q a
setkey Q A
setkey m semicolon
setkey M colon
setkey w z
setkey W Z
setkey comma m
setkey question M
setkey semicolon comma
setkey period less
setkey colon period
setkey slash greater
setkey exclam slash
setkey dollar bracketright
setkey asterisk backslash
setkey percent doublequote
setkey ampersand 1
setkey 1 exclam
setkey tilde 2
setkey 2 at
setkey doublequote 3
setkey 3 numbersign
setkey quote 4
setkey 4 dollar
setkey parenleft 5
setkey 5 percent
setkey minus 6
setkey 6 caret
setkey backquote 7
setkey 7 ampersand
setkey underscore 8
setkey 8 asterisk
setkey caret 9
setkey 9 parenleft
setkey at 0
setkey 0 parenright
setkey parenright minus
setkey less backquote
setkey greater tilde
setkey numbersign braceright
setkey backslash question
setkey bracketright braceleft
setkey braceleft quote
setkey braceright underscore

title Benutze qwertz Tastatur mit GRUB
setkey y z
setkey z y
setkey Y Z
setkey Z Y
setkey equal parenright
setkey parenright parenleft
setkey parenleft asterisk
setkey doublequote at
setkey backquote equal
setkey plus bracketright
setkey minus slash
setkey slash ampersand
setkey ampersand percent
setkey percent caret
setkey underscore question
setkey question underscore
setkey semicolon less
setkey less numbersign
setkey numbersign backslash
setkey colon greater
setkey greater bar
setkey asterisk braceright
setkey caret backquote
setkey backslash minus

(Yes I know this is a double post but I didn't want to make my last post any longer.)

Here's some more info on what happened:

What happened:

After having qtparted attempt to resize my Windows XP NTFS partition and having it just hang at Operation 0 of 2 100%, I loaded windows and used partition magic 8 to resize my xp partition to make room for mepis. I then used the LiveCD and qtparted to format the linux partitons so I have:

hda partition 1: NTFS Windows XP 60gb
hda partition 2: linux-swap 1gb
hda partition 3: ext3 15gb

Once it was finished installing mepis to the two linux partitions and grub to the mbr on hda I booted up mepis fine. But then when I tried to get into Windows XP I found that all it would give me was:

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive
savedefault

After displaying this it would just sit there and load no further.

So I tried using fixmbr and fixboot from my Windows XP Prof. install disk. However all this did was destroy grub and provide me with the error: 'Error loading operating system.'. So I used the partitioner on the windows xp prof. install disk recovery console to format and erase the two linux partitions. I then tried to do a recovery with the same disk, but upon restarting I still got the error loading operating system. So then using the LiveCD I reinstalled mepis and grub into the mbr, and continued to get the same problem with xp not booting.

I've tried nearly every different configuration of menu.lst I could find for booting XP but none worked.

So after continuing to perform the above actions in different combinations and reinstalling mepis some 3 times I finally gave up. Now I just want to get back into Windows XP asap, I don't care if I have to blow up mepis in the process I just want to be done with linux and bootloaders.

Any help?

The current setting of my menu.lst is:
title Windows at hda1
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

My partitions are:

hda1 = Windows XP Professional NTFS
hda2 = Linux-Swap
hda3 = Linux ext3