Hi All,

I have an Athlon 64 system with 3 hard drives ...
HDA is formatted with ntfs, Windows 2000
HDB is formatted with ntfs, Windows Vista X86_64 Beta 2
HDC is a DVD recorder

At this point, the boot partition was the Windows Vista boot selector.

I then installed Suse Linux 10.1 X86_64 on HDD.
Now if I try to boot Windows, the system crashes right after the grub menu. The screen goes black, and the system reboots. Suse still boots fine.

I actually need all 3 OS's on the same machine, as I use it for cross-platform software development.

Is there any solution for this problem? or has anyone else tried a similar dual-boot config on 64 bit platforms with success?

Thanks.

Can you post your grub menu.lst? Do you do the map thing and the chainloader thing for Vista?

Does Vista boot like the other windows? Or have they got clever so you can't dual boot?
And what's this Vista boot selector? Have you perhaps overwritten this with your grub install?

What do you get from fdisk -l ?
Which partition is set to boot? And what is on it now?

You might want to restore the vista boot record (probably using the vista dvd) and then install grub in the linux partition and have vista's bootloader launch grub. You can also install grub in hdd MBR and vista in hda MBR and select the boot drive from the bios if it is supported. (In my bios, when I hit F8 during the POST configuration, I get a list with all my drives and it allows me to boot from another drive instead of hda)

Thanks for the replies, I managed to fix it by using Vista to create a new boot partition, then using Linux's 'dd' utility, I backed it up to a file '/boot/vistaboot.img', then I put a new boot partition from Grub onto HDA, and alterred grub's bootup on Vista to load the load that file, to use that as a boot partition.

if anyone is interested in the commands I used ...

Copy working vista boot partition to a file:
dd if=/dev/hda of=/boot/vistaboot.img bs=512 count=1

(of cause, because I used a rescue disk to boot Linux, the filesystem was mounted somewhere else, so the 'of' parameter was really /filesystem/boot/vistaboot.img )

Reinstall Grub boot loader:
grub-install --root-directory=/boot hd0

Grub commands to boot Vista:
rootnoverify(hd0,0)
chainloader(hd2,1)/boot/vistaboot.img
boot

Clever!

Hey guys i know this is not the right place for this post as i am using ubuntu.. But i find tht you guys are having a similar problem.. Any help will be appreciated..
PLease tell me specifially what should i do..
Heres the situation..

I have been breaking my head over this for a day now.
I have tried every possible option to get my ubuntu back in action followed forums and much more.
I feel like a newbie again even though i've been using ubuntu dapper for a while now.
The problem is Microsoft and the new Windows Vista.. It ate my lovely Ubuntu's grub for a starter following which i have been editing my windows bcd using 3rd party softwares and much more to try and get both working.. after which I reinstalled my ubuntu grub and now My Vista is not working.. This is my menu.lst file and the Windows lines are added by my.


Below you will also find a copy of the fstab file..

# menu.lst - See: grub(, info grub, update-grub(
# grub-install(, grub-floppy(,
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 3

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=/dev/sda8 ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,7)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery mode) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title=Windows Vista
rootnoverify(hd0,0)
chainloader +1

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-23-386
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-23-386 root=/dev/sda8 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-23-386
savedefault
boot

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-23-386 (recovery mode)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-23-386 root=/dev/sda8 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-23-386
boot

title Ubuntu, memtest86+
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
boot


### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST









**************************************************

FSTAB FILE::::::::::::::::::::::



# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/sda8 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/sda1 /media/sda1 ntfs defaults,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
/dev/sda5 /media/sda5 vfat defaults,utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
/dev/sda6 /media/sda6 vfat defaults,utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
/dev/sda9 /media/sda8 ext3 defaults 0 2
/dev/sda7 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdb /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
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Ok i edited one thing in your menu.1st file, go through it and find what i changed. After you modify your menu.1st file just like i did, go ahead and find a vista dvd of the same version (home premium, ultimate, etc.) and REPAIR the install. For me, after I did this, I was able to reboot and my GRUB was still there, but now my Vista AND Ubuntu worked!!!! Once its repaired your pc will indicate that the vista key you have entered is invalid. At this point, call Microsoft, tell them that you have the OEM version of the vista cd that came with your pc, and say the key isnt working. If you convince them that your key is messed up, then they will generate a key for you...hint....i never bought a vista dvd. Also, what seems to be messed up is not the MBR, as i tried resetting that in the BIOS. So basically follow my instructions and it will work, yet I have no perfect explanation for this phenomenon. and Thanks for actually asking a legitimate question and not just saying my vista isnt working.