Dual boot problems using GRUB (Windows XP on hd0, Linux Fedora on hd1)

[pgutier]

Hi, I know several variations of this question have been posted on several forums, but after reading several solutions I haven't been able to fix my problem.

I have two IDE hard disk: the first one on IDE controller IDE0 has WINDOWS XP; the second one on the IDE1 controller has FEDORA CORE.

I installed WINDOWS XP several months ago and I were using it without problems.

I installed LINUX all in a single partition (no /boot or /swap partition) yesterday

I can boot to FEDORA using GRUB without problem.
But I cannot boot to WINDOWS XP, i.e. when I select WINDOWS XP from the GRUB menu the screen goes black and these lines shows indefinetly:
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

here is my grub.conf:
___________________________________
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd1,0)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdc1
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title LINUX Fedora Core (2.6.5-1.327)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.5-1.327 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.5-1.327.img
title WINDOWS XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
_______________________________________

here is /boot/grub/device.map>
____________________________________
# this device map was generated by anaconda
(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd0) /dev/hda
(hd1) /dev/hdc
_____________________________________

I also tried adding the makeactive command to grub.conf in this way (as I read in several forums):

title WINDOWS XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

but the result is the same (exept that a blinking cursor now appears).

What can I do to boot into WINDOWS XP?

[Hayl]

did you search the forums before posting? there are many threads on how to dual boot that have already been answered. you will find that most of these types of questions have been asked/answered many times before.


JL Search results for: windows dual boot (http://www.justlinux.com/forum/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=940336&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending)

[pgutier]

As I said before:
"I know several variations of this question have been posted on several forums, but after reading several solutions I haven't been able to fix my problem."

I have also read similar threads on THIS forum, but I haven't been able to fix my problem. (Maybe my configuration is a little different, for instance, I have WINDOWS in the first IDE controller and LINUX on the second)

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by pgutier
Hi, I know several variations of this question have been posted on several forums, but after reading several solutions I haven't been able to fix my problem.


Hayl must have forgotten you had already searched the JL forums and none of the previous examples seemed to help.

I cannot find anything wrong with your Grub config. :confused:

title WINDOWS XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

That looks fine to me. I use

title Windows XP Professional
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

as XP is on the second primary partition (/boot is first).

You installed Grub in the mbr of hda?

[pgutier]

>>> You installed Grub in the mbr of hda?

Well, I am ashamed to admit that I cannot remeber where I installed Grub.... I think I just left the default option of Fedora checked... Is there any way to tell where Grub is installed?

I have also tried other commands (hide, unhide) that I saw in forums to modify grub.conf, but I cannot still boot into WINDOWS XP.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by pgutier

Well, I am ashamed to admit that I cannot remeber where I installed Grub.... I think I just left the default option of Fedora checked... Is there any way to tell where Grub is installed?


If hda is the primary boot device and you can successfully boot into Linux, then Grub must be installed in the mbr.

I'm not sure if this will help, but you can try.

First test that you can successfully boot into Linux using your installation cd in rescue mode.

Boot with your XP cd into the recovery console and run 'fixmbr' and then reboot to see if XP stills works.

Next boot into rescue mode with your Linux installation cd and run

grub-install /dev/hda

as root to reinstall Grub to the mbr.

https://www.redhat.com/support/resources/howto/rhl9.html should have docs on how to properly use rescue mode and reinstalling Grub.