This new Redhat is capital S-L-I-C-K...

But the inevitable has happened- I have screwed up the installation!

Redhat install went fine (as expected) but Windows XP has decided that it's too good for GRUB. Can someone help me whip this bitch into shape?

I installed RedHat 9 on disk C: (secondary hard drive, 12Gb) and found that the existing Windows XP OS (residing on primary D: drive, 40Gb) is inaccessible.

I get the graphical GRUB screen just fine at startup, with RedHat and DOS listed as options. The grub.conf settings for DOS are:

rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +

I have tried editing it to read (hd0,0) but that did not work.

The error message I get is "Error 13: Invalid or Unsupported Executable Format"

Googled that, and found incomprehensible gibberish. Nothing that could help me figure out why I can only get RedHat to boot, and not XP.

I have exhausted redhat.com installation help, to no avail. I am a little nervous, because I have a LOT of stuff on my D: drive that I don't want to lose. Can anyone help me so that I can get dual-boot up and running?

THANKS SO MUCH, TRYING NOT TO PANIC!

-N

ninjafack@hotmail.com

Windows likes the MBR on C, where it is. Leave windows on C. Install RedHat on D. Just switch the drives, pop in a winfloppy with fdisk and type: fdisk /mbr. Windows will now boot up. Then either boot to redhat cd, and do a upgrade only or boot to floppy and rerun grub/lilo.

is this the reason why is it important to install windows first then install linux? i'm a newbie. i have mandrake 9.1 and i installed win2k first then mandrake 9.1 and installed fine. i think that any attempt to reverse the process will screw up the installation since windows will just rewrite the MBR. linux, however, will just allow you to select which )S to boot through the LILO or GRUB.

RedHat on Secondary Drive and
XP on Primary Drive

so hd0 should be XP and hd1 should be RedHat.

IF you are able to boot into Linux, can you post the output of fdisk -l.

Anyway, try

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

if you do it properly then it can be done either way, but if you read documents on dual booting they will ALWAYS suggest installing the windows OS first, but that is neither here nor there...
and just a little tip for the future:
just to start maybe getting you used to linux any way you know how you could start referring to these in a "linux sense", and i'll show you how:
hda = primary master
hdb = primary slave
hdc = secondary master
hdd = secondary slave
and to relate these to a windows sense:
hda = C:
hdb = D:
hdc = E:
hdd = F:
just a little tip for ya ;-)

Gentlemen,

Thanks a lot for your help. I am at work until 8pm tonight, at which time I will go home and run fdisk and post the output.

Until then, I would like to clarify that I DID install Windows XP first. Several months ago. I then installed RedHat 9 last night, and WINXP quit working.

Anyway, try

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

As I stated in my original post, I did try that. No dice. Any other suggestions?


Windows likes the MBR on C, where it is. Leave windows on C. Install RedHat on D.

The MBR is on C. However, Windows is on D. Redhat is on C.


switch the drives, pop in a winfloppy with fdisk and type: fdisk /mbr.

Switch the drives? I don't understand what that means. And what does running fdisk on MBR do??


just to start maybe getting you used to linux any way you know how you could start referring to these in a "linux sense", and i'll show you how:
hda = primary master
hdb = primary slave
hdc = secondary master
hdd = secondary slave
and to relate these to a windows sense:
hda = C:
hdb = D:
hdc = E:
hdd = F:
just a little tip for ya ;-)

Actually, dr0zz, C: drive is the primary slave. D: drive is the primary master. I added the 40gb capacity hard drive (D) after the C drive was already installed. But WinXP is hda (D).

Linux is on the recently-formatted hdb.


Does that help?


~Muchas Gracias, amigos~

N*

ninjafack@hotmail.com

by switching drives, i think what dr0zz means is you make your D: drive a primary slave... i think. is it even possible for your C drive to be a primary slave and still boot? i always thought that MBR's should be in a pimary master drive... i'm really confused now.

C is booting linux just fine. You're confused? Hah.

Unfortuneatly Windows is programmed to be the 'Alpha' OS so any attempt to install Windows after installing Linux will screw up the MBR as we all have found out one way or the other. Have no fear. Linux is more then capable of dealing with this. You can simply boot to Linux and run grub-install so that it will take over the MBR again.

Windoze was programmed not as the 'Alpha' OS but the Only OS.

Finally,

Got some actual data to show so I can get some help!

Thanks to everyone who has replied so far. I feel like I'm getting closer to getting Windoze back up and running, and getting more comfortable and appreciative of RedHat with every successful restart.

fdisk -l:

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 * 1 4865 39078081 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/hdb: 13.6 GB, 13600677888 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1653 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hdb2 14 1556 12394147+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdb3 1557 1653 779152+ 82 Linux swap


menu.lst:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb2
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hdb
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img
title WindowsXP
chainloader = (hd1,0)+1


OK, that's what I got. Need more info to diagnose my computer's problem? Just let me know. THANKS!

N*
ninjafack@hotmail.com

Just now tried editing menu.lst file as follows:

root noverify (hd0,0)
chainloader+

Got the following message sequence:

"Booting 'Windows XP'"

Error 11: Unrecognized Device String


Hrm... :[

just out of curiosity......


and assuming you havent done so.....


check your bios and see if it lets you specify which hard disk you boot to. Try changing it to the windows drive if it does have this option, thus bypassing grub and going strait into ms

its not as convient as the boot loader, but it might get you back in if the setting is there.

Well, so much for WinXP. Lost all my data, reformatted both drives *ouch* and installed RedHat 9. Hopefully it will prove more reliable, so that I don't lose all of my hard-won, irreplacable, worthless Internet shit again.