Fedora/Vista booting trouble

[agentzed]

Hello guys

I have a notebook Packard Bell , nevermind , I don`t think the config is important in my case . My HDD is a SATA one (160 GB) . I first installed Windows Vista 32 bits , which is on a ntfs partition of 60 gb. I also have another ntfs partition of 60GB. Recently(yesterday) , I just installed Fedora 9 i386 . No problem at all , it is great , a bit difficult though but the problem is I can`t boot into windows anymore . Each time I get a bootscreen showing :

Fedora (2.6.25-14.fc.i686)
Other

Obviously , I need to boot on windows now so I choose other ... then I get the "friendly" black screen with white letters :

Botting 'other'

rootnoverify (hd0,4)
chainloader +1
_

And this is it ... Nothing happens from now on . Another thing that seemed to be a bit strange for me is the name of Fedora in the bootscreen : Fedora (2.6.25-14.fc.i686) <--- I know for sure I have installed i386 , when I installed it , that's what I said . Whatever , I don`t know the difference anyway :P I`m some sort of a linux n00b for now but I wanna learn and get deep into it since Windows is getting me crazy .

Another problem would be that I can`t use my touchpad . It works when I move the pointer all over the screen , but when I wanna click by touching the pad , it doesn`t work so I need to use that annoying button.

Please help me , I`m desperate , I have a lot of precious data on Vista which obviously I can`t access right now and this thing delays me from important stuff.

Thanks in advance ,

Vlad

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

Boot up Fedora, open Terminal/Konsole and execute this

su -
/sbin/fdisk -l

Post output here. Post the contents of /boot/grub/grub.conf file too.

* Its small L in fdisk -l.

[agentzed]

There ya go

===============/sbin/fdisk -l ================

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB , 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xfe81fe81

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3811 30611826 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 3825 19456 125564040 f W95 Ext'd(LBA
/dev/sda3 3812 3824 10422+ 82 Linux swap/Solaris
/dev/sda5 3825 11473 61440561 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 11474 19122 61440561 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 19123 19456 2682823+ 82 Linux swap/solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

=============== 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(hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda1
initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0) /boot/grub/spalsh.spm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.25-14.fc9.i686)
root(hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25-14.fc9.i686 ro root=UUID=d04falca-4454-4f9c-8351-c29d56c3773a rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25-15.fc9.i686.img
title Other
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
chainloader +1

====================

That's it Thanks again

[devils casper]

Boot up Fedora, log in as root and open /boot/grub/grub.conf file. replace rootnoverify (hd0,4) with (hd0,5).

title Other
rootnoverify (hd0,5)
chainloader +1

Save file and reboot machine.

How did you create partitions for Linux? Windows OS is installed in Logical Partition and AFAIK, Windows OS must be installed in Primary Partition only.

[agentzed]

Boot up Fedora, log in as root and open /boot/grub/grub.conf file. replace rootnoverify (hd0,4) with (hd0,5).

title Other
rootnoverify (hd0,5)
chainloader +1

Save file and reboot machine.

How did you create partitions for Linux? Windows OS is installed in Logical Partition and AFAIK, Windows OS must be installed in Primary Partition only.

set the partition where I installed Linux as primary partition as far as I remember

It's not working ... same result

[devils casper]

It looks like something has gone with Windows OS during Partitioning. Partition of Windows OS should be first Primary partition.
Anyways, remove GRUB ( Fedora's Boot Loader ) and check if Windows OS boots up by default. Follow instructions from here.

Dont worry about data. Its easy to recover data from NTFS partition(s) no matter OS boots up or not.

[agentzed]

Removed the grub , windows didn`t boot by default and the repair with the windows vista dvd didn`t work as well . When I have to choose an OS , the field is empty there. Anyway,managed to get to the cmd :

X:\Sources> bootrec.exe /fixmbr
The operation completed successfully

X:\Sources\bootrec.exe /fixboot
The volume does not contain a recognized file system.
Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted .

Thought it might be because of the X:\ in there so I switched to C:\ (vista partition) . The same result , the first one worked , the 2nd didn`t .

Update : I also tried an Automatic Startup Repair and it wasn`t able to repair it .

Now , when I`m trying to boot , I get "Missing Operating System"

[devils casper]

You didn't create new partitions for Linux correctly and Windows OS has been messed up. You have to re-install both OSes now.
Boot up from Fedora or anyother LiveCD, recover data and re-install both OSes.
Install Windows OS first, create two partitions for Linux through PartedMagic LiveCD before starting Fedora installation.
1 ext3, 10-15GB is enough.
2.SWAP, 512MB - 1GB.

[agentzed]

Oh god ... this is gonna be tough ... Thanks a lot for your time , I owe you one

[yancek]

If you have difficulty recovering your data, you might try googling for SystemRescueCD and using it if you are able to do that. Also, make sure to install vista on a primary partition as a windows OS will not boot from a logical partition unless you have another windows OS on a primary. You have two ntfs partitions and I'm not sure if they are both vista. If not, install vista after the other windows OS, if there is one, or you will be unable to boot vista.