Please help me configure grub

[sherm]

I installed Suse 9.0 on my comp that already had widows XP on it, when it boots up there is no option to choose windows. here is all the info about my partitions and the boot loader I could find.

Alright, this is what I found
The I opened the YaST partitioner and it had three entries, the first is

device: /dev/hda
type: WDCWD2ooEB-ooCPF-o
start:0 end:2433

the second is

device: /dev/hda1
Type: linux swap
Mount: swap
start: 0 end: 2433

the third

device:: dev/hda2
Type: linux native
Mount: /
start:129 end: 2433

The YasT GRUB boot loader had these entries

bootloader location: 1. IDE 18.64GB /dev/hda WDC WD2ooEB-ooCDFo
Disk order: /dev/hda
Default section: linux
Avalible sections: linux, floppy, failsafe
activate bootloader partition: no
add saved MBR to boot loader: no
Thaks for any help.

[big_k105]

when you installed suse you didnt accedently choose repartition the whole harddrive did you or is windows maybe on /dev/hda3 or is it on a second hd. cause normally windows would be on /dev/hda1 if you had it already installed before you isntalled linux. i have a slight feeling you mite have completely deleted your windows partition with linux sorry but i think that might be the problem cause suse is really good and detecting windows and setting up everything so that you can even read the windows partition and boot to it. but let us know if maybe windows is on a second hd

edit: welcome to the forums

[sherm]

Is there anywhere in the suse config. or yast that I can tell how much space that suse is using?
In the partitioner it has 3 entries, that I listed above. the first is

device: /dev/hda
type: WDCWD2ooEB-ooCPF-o
start:0 end:2433
one is linux the other is linux swap.

could this be the windows partition? Also, linux loads from (hd0,1) from my understanding that would mean it is loading from the first harddrive, second partition. Is that correct? I only have 1 harddrive. I remember when suse was partitioning my drive it wanted to split it down the middle, more or less so I think I still have it. i hope.
thanks for welcoming me, so far I like linux, its only my 5th day, im just sad it ate my windows.

[big_k105]

try going into the terminal and su over to root and run

cfdisk /dev/hda

and tell me what how many partitions it says and it will tell you about all the partition on the whole harddisk even the windows one if it is there so try that and we will see what it says and go from there

[Nerderello]

Sherm,
to answer your last question.

When Linux reports that it has found a partition of type Swap, that is the type it is. If it were a windows partition it would say either FAT or FAT32 or VFAT or NTFS. As it isn't saying that you can be sure that it is NOT a Windows partition.

Now, do you have more than one hard disk on your PC? If you don't, then it would appear that you no longer have Windows (a point to celebrate ). You can always, should you wish, re-install Windows, but be warned, Uncle Bill's product will overwrite your bot loader, so make sure that you have a working Linux rescue diskette.

have fun

Nerderello

[Opnosforatou]

I'm affraid your Windows partition is bye bye....
If this is all the output you get from the disk that also had you windows partition on it.
Hope this wasn't a system with too much info on it that you needed.
This has happend to me too .
It's the hard way to learn about diskpartition and rescueing data.
If you want to be save in the future.
I would recommend the following.
Use 2 disks in your system.
On the first install Windows (95/98/ME/NT4/NT2K/XP)
Use 2 partitions on it... One of 10 to 20 GB for the system and the rest als the data drive, where you also store your My Documents and other data.
After that is all done, use disk2 (That will be /dev/hdb) to install Linux on.
(or /dev/sdb if you are using SCSI)

Another tip: Don't let the linux installer do the partitioning automaticaly. Allway do it yourself. Unless you don't want to keep existing partitions on the target harddisk.
I found the various autoinstallers and partitioning software to be 'faulty'