Added Windows HD to linux box. Trouble ensues.

RandallC · 10-30-2004, 09:16 PM

So for various reasons I decided I needed I windows install on my linux box. The computer is running mandrake 10, installed on the primary hard drive.

Knowing that windows likes to eat previously installed OS's, I disconnected the linux HD and hooked up another HD in its place to install windows on.

Now I have two hard drives, and I can get either OS to boot by changing boot order in the BIOS. Not ideal.

The problem is this: while I can see the partition on the windows drive (hdb) using fdisk, the partition (hdb1) is not present in /dev (/dev/hdb1 does not exist). I can't mount the windows drive, and I can't add the windows partition to LILO.

Help?

Thanks.

crabboy · 10-30-2004, 11:07 PM

If you have no hdb1 you'll have to create it:
[code]
mknod /dev/hdb1 b 3 65
[code]

You may want to add b2, b3, b4 etc... b2 will be minor 66, and so on.

RandallC · 10-31-2004, 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by crabboy
If you have no hdb1 you'll have to create it:
[code]
mknod /dev/hdb1 b 3 65
[code]

You may want to add b2, b3, b4 etc... b2 will be minor 66, and so on.

Cool! I only have 1 partition, so that should do it? I'm going to try now.

Edit: Didn't work. hdb1 shows up now, but when doing an 'ls' in /dev it looks different then, for example, hda1. It's yellow and doesn't have an @ symbol at the end of it.

Now when I try to mount the drive, it says
mount: /dev/hdb1 is not a valid block device

Adding it to lilo also fails.

RandallC · 10-31-2004, 03:42 PM

Bump for suggestions.

UsualTuxpect · 10-31-2004, 04:03 PM

Windows doesnt like being in hdb connect it as master[hda] and see if it boots up your windows first.

You could also use ntloader instead of grub/lilo to boot into linux
-->http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux...w2k-HOWTO.html

What is your filesystem type on [/dev/hdb1] ???

and also when you are trying to mount the /dev/hdb1 make sure you are passing the right filesystem type as argument [-t vfstype] to the mount command.. read the manual for more info [#man mount]. And see if your kernel supports the file system you are trying to mount.

RandallC · 10-31-2004, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by UsualTuxpect
Windows doesnt like being in hdb connect it as master[hda] and see if it boots up your windows first.

You could also use ntloader instead of grub/lilo to boot into linux
-->http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux...w2k-HOWTO.html

What is your filesystem type on [/dev/hdb1] ???

and also when you are trying to mount the /dev/hdb1 make sure you are passing the right filesystem type as argument [-t vfstype] to the mount command.. read the manual for more info [#man mount]. And see if your kernel supports the file system you are trying to mount.

Thanks for the reply.

If I swap the master/slave configuration of the drives, windows will boot first. My problem isn't that I can't get into my windows drive--I can if I do that or change the boot order in my bios.

The filesystem type is FAT32, since I know NTFS support is sketchy at best.

I'll try using ntloader.

Edit: I went to that link, but it assumes linux is being installed. My situation is a little different--linux is already independently running off its own harddrive. GRUB is installed on the MBR on that drive.

So what exactly would I need to do? Somehow install GRUB to a new partition on the windows drive?

UsualTuxpect · 10-31-2004, 08:43 PM

I am a little confused here... for a second, forget about Slave hard-disk [disconnect it..]

1)Are you able to boot window's harddisk as master

2)Are you able to boot Linux harddisk as master

Dont do anything with the boot order in your BIOS [let it boot from hda..]

Depending on your answer we'll go ahead...

RandallC · 10-31-2004, 09:32 PM

Yes and Yes.

UsualTuxpect · 10-31-2004, 10:04 PM

Ok, Nice to know that.

*Now all you need to to is connect your Linux hard drive as master(hda) and connect your Windows Drive as Slave (hdb).

*Don't change anything in the BIOS..

*edit your /boot/grub/grub.conf file and **remove** all the lines (if) you have for windows and paste the following line's below the linux related lines..

title Windoze
map (hd1) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

* save it and restart linux.

EXAMPLE -->this is my grub.conf

title Red Hat Linux 9 [ KERNEL - 2.6.6-1.435 ]
root (hd0,6)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.6-1.435 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-cd apm=off
initrd /initrd-2.6.6-1.435.img

title Windoze
map (hd1) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

RandallC · 11-01-2004, 07:02 AM

Alrighty--just one problem. I don't have a grub.conf in /boot/grub. Is it hiding somewhere else?

jschiwal · 11-01-2004, 07:58 AM

Perhaps you are using lilo. This does the same thing. It should be in the windows stanza.
map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81da
to=0x80

Or look for the 'menu.lst' file in the /boot/grub directory.

If you decide to make the windows drive the master, then be sure to edit the /etc/fstab file and the lilo.conf or grub.conf or menu.lst files. Then reinstall the mbr. For lilo you run /sbin/lilo as root.

For grub: grub-install (hd0)

Good Luck!

320mb · 11-01-2004, 09:48 AM

windows like to be on an "active" partition also.........NOT
on a "logical" partition..........

and there is the "2 gig and 1024 cylinder boundries" to think about

BUT windows can be tricked into thinking it is within these "boundries"--LOL

RandallC · 11-01-2004, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jschiwal
Perhaps you are using lilo. This does the same thing. It should be in the windows stanza.
map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81da
to=0x80

Or look for the 'menu.lst' file in the /boot/grub directory.

If you decide to make the windows drive the master, then be sure to edit the /etc/fstab file and the lilo.conf or grub.conf or menu.lst files. Then reinstall the mbr. For lilo you run /sbin/lilo as root.

For grub: grub-install (hd0)

Good Luck!

Ok, couldn't get lilo to like that. So I switched to grub. I'm editting the menu.lst file, and have added the grub related "Windoze" code. Now I'm trying to use grub-install, but its not liking it. Is that the exact syntax above?

Thanks for the continued help!

Edit: Just wanted to say that after fiddling with it, it looks like everything is just fine and dandy with grub. I can boot into windows.

Can I change the order of the bootloader so that windows is below linux? There are a few other things there that were installed by default.

Next question: How do you think I should go about mounting my windows drive in linux? /dev/hdb1 doesn't show up. Any ideas?

Thanks!

crabboy · 11-02-2004, 12:34 AM

Does hdb show up in the output of dmesg? You should see something like this: (but for hda and hdb)

Code:

hde: Maxtor 6Y120L0, ATA DISK drive
ide2 at 0xe880-0xe887,0xe802 on irq 10
hdh: ST320413A, ATA DISK drive
ide3 at 0xe480-0xe487,0xe402 on irq 10
hde: max request size: 128KiB
hde: 240121728 sectors (122942 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=65535/16/63, UDMA(100)
hde: cache flushes supported
 hde: hde1 hde2 hde3 hde4
hdh: max request size: 128KiB
hdh: 39102336 sectors (20020 MB) w/512KiB Cache, CHS=38792/16/63, UDMA(100)
hdh: cache flushes not supported
 hdh: hdh1

RandallC · 11-02-2004, 06:16 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by crabboy
Does hdb show up in the output of dmesg? You should see something like this: (but for hda and hdb)

Code:

hde: Maxtor 6Y120L0, ATA DISK drive ide2 at 0xe880-0xe887,0xe802 on irq 10 hdh: ST320413A, ATA DISK drive ide3 at 0xe480-0xe487,0xe402 on irq 10 hde: max request size: 128KiB hde: 240121728 sectors (122942 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=65535/16/63, UDMA(100) hde: cache flushes supported hde: hde1 hde2 hde3 hde4 hdh: max request size: 128KiB hdh: 39102336 sectors (20020 MB) w/512KiB Cache, CHS=38792/16/63, UDMA(100) hdh: cache flushes not supported hdh: hdh1

Ooo good call. Yes, hdb has a few lines in the output, but there seems to be an error:

hdb: Maxtor 53073H4, ATA DISK drive
...
hdb: max request size: 128KiB
hdb: 60030432 sectors (30735 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=59554/16/63, UDMA(66)
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: inconsistent partition table (overflow)
...
VFS: Can't find a calid FAT filesystem on dev hdb.

I typed this all in by hand so hopefully there are no subtle errors, but that should be the gist of it anyway.