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Grub Hard Disk error
i am a total noob to linux to so please bear with me. i had win xp installed on my comp and out of bordum i decided to install linux (RED HAT 8.0). i did some research (but apparently not enought) and installed linux. but everytime i boot my comp i get a GRUB Hard Disk Error. is there anyway to fix this. i cannot boot into windows whatsoever and i can only run linux from the boot disk. i am fine with running linux i just want my files.
i have two hds:
hd1 has two partitions C: (has windows on it) D: (has prog files on it)
hd2 has three partions E: (music files) F: (whree i installed linux) G: (movies)
i understand that my ntloader is probaly erased. is there anyway of getting grub to work right?
any help will be appreciated.
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Your ntloader is not erased, it resides on hda1 (C:).
Just some questions:
You say you installed linux on "F:". Does that mean that you can see F: in windows with all linux files? In that case you installed it with the wrong filesystem, which seriously impares functionality and performance. (The reason you shouldn't be able to see it in windows is that windows is unable to read ext2, the file system that linux normally uses)
Exactly what error does GRUB give you and when? Is it when GRUB starts or is it when you try and boot windows?
Could you post your grub.conf file? Its complete path is /boot/grub/grub.conf. Please post it in "code" tags.
Try entering GRUB's command line mode (press C, I think... It says on the title screen what key to press). Then enter these two commands:
Code:
chainloader (hd0,0)+1
boot
See what happens, and post any error messages here.
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Sorry, I missed that you could only boot linux from boot disk. I guess that means that you get the error upon GRUB startup.
Exactly what does the error message say?
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it says GRUB Hard Disk Error
im guessing that its when grub is about to run
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here is my file :
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd1,2)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb5
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,2)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
password --md5 $1$Öwþêá4õó$0AxUyIG1S0sdR43K8w6lO0
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-19.8.0)
root (hd1,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-19.8.0 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.18-19.8.0.img
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-14)
root (hd1,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.18-14.img
title DOS
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
I hope there is nothing there that i wasnt supposed to share with people :-?
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Now that seems a little strange. Do you have some special kind of hard drives or BIOS or something? Is it an old BIOS?
Anyway, try this: Make a GRUB boot disk by running the following commands in a shell (have a discardable disk in your floppy drive):
Code:
cd /usr/share/grub/i386-pc
dd if=stage1 of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1
dd if=stage2 of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 seek=1
Then boot from that disk, and run these commands:
Code:
root (hd1,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /initrd-2.4.18-14.img
boot
See what happens when you do that and report back. You can also try the commands I gave in my first post and see if they work.
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i sent u private messages about my problems
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is there anyway that i can erase linux and go back to win xp?
then install linux again ?
basically just start over?
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Actually, you don't have to "go back" to windows first. All you need to do is just reinstalling linux.
I think the problem might be that you don't have a boot partition, and that for some reason you BIOS doesn't really support LBA hard disk addressing. If so, all you need to do is put a small boot partition in the beginning of hd2. It only needs to be like 50 MB or so. The RH8 installation program complains that it should be at least like 75 MB, but it doesn't even use 50.
Having a boot partition (you make it the boot partition by setting its mount point to /boot) will help your boot loader, since it makes the boot files reside in the areas of your hard drive that are accessible to non-LBA BIOSes.
The problem is, of course that your E: takes that space right now. Can't you back up the data on it somewhere else, move the partition, and then move the data back again?
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reset windows.
careful with this!
to remove linux from the boot sector of your hardisk you will need a windows 98 or 95 startup disk. I am not sure if it will work with an XP one but it should. You will lose all of your windows settings. and possibly your files as well so it is a FINAL resort.
boot from the bootdisk into a DOS prompt and type
fdisk /mbr
this will reset you master boot record. I have used this before when a friend tried to install linux into the same partition as his windows installation and messed everything right up.
check out the microsoft site for more info on what will remain after you have done this.
