[SOLVED] dual boot windows problem

[devils casper]

Mount Windows Partition and post filenames of all files available in its root folder.

[kai12]

What does that mean? What happens?

Ja, sorry, I should have included more detail.
I used the SuperGrub Disk to boot the HDD which has Windows XP on it,
and I got a blank screen with only one line a text on it which read:
"press any key to restart" in caps. It may have been "a key" instead of "any key"
or "reboot" instead of "restart", I don't quite remember.

Do you have the windows hard drive set to first boot priority in the BIOS? If you have the Ubuntu disk set to first boot priority, it won't boot windows because you have no entry for windows in your /boot/grub/menu.lst file.

I don't know, I'll check tonight.

After creating the boot.ini file, did you check to see if you have NTLDR and NTDETECT files in the root of your C:\ partition?

If you have the needed files, you should be able to boot if you set the windows drive to first boot ;priority.

I don't think so, but let me check tonight to make sure.
As Lostfarmer points out, if the files were there, they should show up in the
boot_info output, so I'm guessing they are not there.

You should also be able to boot it if you have your Ubuntu drive set to first boot priority if you have the correrct entry in menu.lst. Which do you want to do?

In the end, I would like to have grub give me a choice of booting either ubuntu
or windows, ubuntu being the default.

Mount Windows Partition and post filenames of all files available in its root folder.

I will!


Thank you all for your effort!
kai

[kai12]

hi,

here's the content of the root directory:

BJPrinter                    Driver         pscp.exe
BLUEKEYS                     hiberfil.sys   RECYCLER
boot.ini                     lmarbles.conf  spiele
Canoni850                    pagefile.sys   System Volume Information
Config.Msi                   png.zip        WINDOWS
da20255481abfff1d0b591       PROGRAMM
Dokumente und Einstellungen  Programme

so... as expected NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM are missing.
since these are "just" executable, would it be ok to copy them from other installation?

kai

[devils casper]

I am not sure if you can use ntldr and ntdetect.com of other installation but its worth to try.

[kai12]

still no luck.

I've put copies of the NT loader and NT detection tool (NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM) in the
root directory, and they show up in the output of boot_info, but still xp won't boot.

If I try to boot the 2nd HDD from the SuperGrub Disk (Boot Windows from 2nd Disk) I still get
the PRESS A KEY TO REBOOT message.

I've tried booting straight from BIOS (making the xp HDD the first in the priority list of boot
options). I don't even get to the "press a key" message then, I end up booting the next
option on the list (which was to boot from cdrom in my case).

This reminded me of an earlier question of mine: fdisk indicated that the xp HDD was not
"active", the GNOME Disk Utility reports its "Bootable" flag to be false.
Isn't this reason for concern? Do I need to "activate" the HDD, make it a "primary partition" or
something like this?

I've also checked the BIOS for info on the HDDs: the ubuntu HDD is set up as the "primary master"
the xp HDD is "primary slave". This doesn't mean much to me, but here's the info nonetheless.
Also, BIOS seems to know the ubuntu HDD as "HDD-0" and the xp HDD as "HDD-1" in the
boot priority list.

Should this be reflected in my boot.ini? It seems to hold information on disk number / partition
number, etc.

kai

[Lostfarmer]

If you are directly booting to the XP hdd via bios ,don't know about SuperGrub Disk, then the XP partition must be marked active to boot.

To activate can use linux 'fdisk /dev/sdb' --press 'a' toggle boot flag -1=first partition - then 'w' to write and exit.

It is also possible that the boot code was not written to the Volume Boot Record during install fo the 2nd XP copy, it was not needed, but now it is. Boot with the XP cd- recovery console- run 'fixboot'.

[kai12]

It worked: after making the second HDD "active", I was able to boot Windows XP!
From BIOS as well as supergrub disk, and -- after making the appropriate changes
to menu.lst -- from the grub residing on the first HDD.

phew! that was a lengthy process, thanks everyone, for your continued support!
i feel like celebrating! if i could, i'd invite you all to drinks!


for future reference, here's my summary of problem and solution:

• I started out with a computer that had 2 Win XP installations on 2 HDDs, one installed after the other.
• After I replace the first Win XP with Linux (ubuntu) on HDD1, booting the Win XP in HDD2 was not possible anymore. I should have known, since the ubuntu installer didn't detect an OS on HDD2...
• I turned out that 2 things were amiss:
  
  • some windows boot files were missing, namely BOOT.INI, the NT loader NTLDR and hardware detection NTDETECT.COM.
  • HDD2 was not active.
• solution was to create boot.ini from scratch, and to copy the other two files
  from a working XP install on another box. Hint: they also seem to be available here.

cheers, kai

[devils casper]

Glad to help you and Well Done !
Thanx for posting detailed solution. I will help other users having same problem.