(If this question has been answered before, I'm sorry, but I ran a search and the topic didn't come up.)
In a nutshell, GRUB can't detect my WINXP partition, but I don't think it's as simple as modifying the boot.conf file.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
I have a 40GB hard disk: 25MB for WINXP (15 for OS and programs, 10 for files only) and 15MB reserved for LINUX. Previously, I was dual booting WINXP and Fedora Core 3, and then I changed to Redhat 9 and then down to Redhat 7.3. (If you're wondering why I'm downgrading, I just want to install a program that runs on older versions of Redhat).
Just recently, before installing RH7.3, I got another 3GB from my remaining space and formatted it as FAT32.
Anyway, both FC3 and RH9 worked fine, but come RH7.3, everything went whack! I don't know if it matters, but I din't create a separate partition for /boot. I didn't create one in FC3 or RH9 before, so I thought this should be okay.
What I think matters, though, is that I wrote GRUB into the MBR. I don't know if this is what I did with RH9 and FC3, but I never booted from the GRUB command line before, so I'm assuming that I did write GRUB into the MBR previously.
I booted the PC and GRUB loaded just fine. It presented me with options whether to run Redhat or DOS (which I assume to be WINXP). I chose DOS and to my surprise, the PC just restarted again! O_o So okay, I ran LINUX and looked for the boot.conf file. It showed something like this:
title DOS
rootnoverify (hda0,5)
chainloader +1
This is weird because WINXP is on hda1, not hda5. hda5 actually contains the 3GB of FAT32. So I edited the boot.conf so it would read (hda0,1) instead of (hda0,5). I rebooted, and chose DOS. I was then faced with a black screen quoting the boot.conf file.
title DOS
rootnoverify (hda0,1)
chainloader +1
O_o I decided to boot from my WINXP CD just to check if my files were still intact, and they are. I also decided to delete the FAT32 partition (nothing was written on it anyway). I rebooted again, this time with the RH7.3 installer. I wanted to reinstall 7.3, this time with every intention of creating a /boot partition, and setting the default to Windows (which I didn't do before).
HOWEVER, when I reached the part where I could select my default boot image, I was presented with the following options:
[ ] /dev/hda1 ntfs (my 15GB winxp partition)
[ ] /dev/hda5 ntfs (my 10GB ntfs partition)
[/] /dev/dha7 ext3 (Redhat linux)
I deselected Redhat and tried to select winxp. TRIED, but I couldn't. And now I'm stuck. So here are my questions because I don't know what to do anymore!
I've already done a dual boot of winXP and 7.3 before, so I don't know what I did wrong this time.
1. Is my WinXP dead? I don't think so, but it might as well be if I can't load it.
2. Is there a way of making GRUB detect my WinXP?
3. If I want WINXP to boot, even without 7.3. Is it safe to use FIXMBR? I've done some online searches, and everyone says to use this, but a friend of mine told me that FIXMBR deleted EVERYTHING. Will FIXMBR delete my files?
4. Is there a safe way of uninstalling 7.3 rather than just deleting its partitions using the WINXP CD? When I changed from FC3 to RH9, I simply deleted the partitions, so when I decided to change from RH9 to RH7.3, I just deleted the partitions again. Do you think this affected my system somehow?
You guys don't have to answer all the questions... Just please suggest a nice solution for me... Please?
Even if it goes something like "you can't save windows, you've lost your files forever, you're stupid for doing what you did..." Anything! At least I know that I'm stupid and that I won't do these things again!
Thanks anyway. 
Linear Mode
