Before I start, let me make it known that I am a total Linux virgin.

I recently installed SuSE Linux 9.1 Personal, in the hope that I could place it in a partition, and choose to boot either it or Windows XP when my laptop (a Dell Inspiron 8500) is turned on. I booted my computer from the SuSE setup disk, and installed it with YaST as required. I then rebooted my computer. When I turned it back on, and when I have turned it on subsequently, instead of booting to a menu with both Linux and Windows on it, I merely recieve the word 'GRUB' in the top left hand corner.

I have been informed by Linux technical support both over the phone, and by email, that my boot loader is damaged, and I have been told how to repair it (boot from setup disk, type 'suse_update' and hit 'installation' then hit 'repair'), but this has failed to work.

Currently, the only way I can get my computer to boot anything is to boot from the SuSE setup disk, then move to the stage where I can select to 'Repair' then hit 'Boot installed system'. This is a tiresome and time-consuming process, and does not allow me to boot Windows, which I need to do ASAP.

Where should I go from here? How should I fix my boot loader to the extent that I can select either Linux or Windows from start up without inserting a setup disk?

If the worst comes to the worst, I am prepared to sacrifice Linux, and uninstall it, if this will enable me to boot back into Windows like normal. Any instructions on this if it is indeed necessary would also be appreciated.

Any help would be very much appreciated.
Thank you very much in advance.

Regards,
Marty McDonalds

umm it sounds like either your suse partition isn't active, or the partition with /boot on it is corrupted, try a reinstall...

The Linux 2.6 kernel's "parted" has a problem...

Ref: portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/05/fhassel_windows_not_booting91.html

Download the parted.iso zip file, unzip it, and then create an image (not a data!) CD on Linux:

cdrecord –v –eject speed=2 dev=1,0,0 ./parted.iso

My CDROM drive will not read CD #1; I select ACPI Disabled on CD #2 to install Linux.

1. Boot CD #2
2. On menu, hit F6
3. Down-arrow to ACPI Disabled
4. Add boot option “fixpart=1” and hit Enter
5. “Please insert the driver update floppy/cdrom”
6. “Please choose the driver update medium”
7. Down-arrow to “hdc (cdrom)” Enter
8. Replace CD #2 with driver update; Enter
9. “Driver updates added: SUSE 9.1 Partition Fix” Enter
10. “Please choose the driver update medium”
11. Right-arrow to “Back” Enter
12. “Please make sure CD #1 is in your drive!”
13. Replace driver update with CD #2; Enter
14. “Select a Disk” (hda shows as “broken”); Enter
15. “Would you like me to try to fix the partition table?”
16. “Yes” Enter
17. “Select a disk” (hda shows as “ok”)
18. Remove CD #2; Ctrl-Alt-Del
19. On menu, Down-arrow to Windows; Enter
20. Windows XP boots…

I’ve got five PCs in a cluster and the 2.6 kernel’s “parted” trashed them all. The above procedure brought four of them back to life. HP is sending me a “restore to factory” CD for the fifth one.

Hope this helps – your results may vary,

Alex

Your grub is simply not configured. It's no common task to edit it manually.
Did you receive any message of file damaged during installation? your yast bootloader configuration module is simply probably damaged. do you see a bootloader configuration module in yast2? if yes run it, it will configure your grub in a snap (do "propose configuration".

1. Boot as you can
2. download yast2-bootloader rpm from suse mirror and install (it's very small and easy)
3. run yast2, you should now see the bootloader configuration module.

Every time you have a problem linux gurus will tell you to solve it reinstalling 2 or 3 Gb of trash. Beware!