Problems Installing...

I will try to keep this short... I am totally new to Linux and am trying to switch over. Here is my setup:

I have 4 harddrives, two IDE two SATA, all 200gig+...I have 2 gigs of ram...I have vista ultimate installed on an NTFS formatted primary IDE, then two of the other drives are NTFS for windows storage... FINALLY I had my fourth hdd... I deleted the formatting so that it was unallocated... and popped in my Ubuntu disc I downloaded/burned. Installed it on the fourth drive (i think it formatted it in ext3?) and restarted.

Now when GRUB starts, it gets a little ways in and dies on an "ERROR 25"... I can do nothing from there... no windows or Linux. I made a SUPER GRUB disc, which I can get into and start up my Vista, but not Ubuntu. The tools in there didnt seem to help fix the booting error either... although I didn't truly know what I was doing.

I have tried re-installing several times, with different options, I have booted into the LIVE CD and tried going into TERMINAL and following tutorials online...

Im getting close to giving up... CAN SOMEONE HELP ME!?

Thank you so much...in advance.

Ben
(sorry if i didnt include needed info,let me knwo and I will supply)

oh yeah, and reinstalling vista isnt an option... I run a business and I cant be down and reinstalling apps for a day.

hi Ben,

Welcome to the LinuxForums.

Linux Harddisk must be plugged in as Primary and GRUB must be installed in the MBR of it. GRUB is installed in the MBR of Windows Harddisk right now.
i suggest you to remove GRUB from Windows Harddisk, SWAP Windows Harddisk with Ubuntu Harddisk and reinstall Ubuntu.
it will work perfectly and if anything goes wrong with Ubuntu in future, you wont need SuperGRUB CD/Floppy or any third party tool to boot up Windows.





Casper

devils_casper_

Thanks for the welcome and the quick response...

That sounds like a plan... Let me just double check what Im doing since I will be unable to get back here until Im done...

I should use my Vista CD, to reset the MBR and wipe the last drive (for ubuntu)...The only thing Im not sure about is how to make my last drive (ubuntu) the primary. Can I just change the BIOS boot order? I have two IDE and two SATA drives. I know how to swap jumpers to make certain drives master/slave etc... but how do I reorder them without screwing up my windows install? I cant physically SWAP them since one is on an IDE cable and the other is on an SATA cable...

Sorry for my confusion.

ben

hmm.. i thought you Ubuntu and Vista are installed in SATA disks only. IDE and SATA combination creates problems most of the time.
set Ubuntu Disk as Primary Master and leave SATA disks as they are and re-install Ubuntu.
in case it doesn't work, boot up from Ubuntu LiveCD, execute 'sudo fdisk -l' command in Terminal and post output here.
if you could mount Ubuntu partition, post the contents of /boot/grub/device.map file.

Ok, Im on the LIVE CD... dont know how to mount the ubuntu partition...buut here is the fdisk dump:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

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

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 19456 156280288+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/hdb: 123.5 GB, 123522416640 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15017 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 15016 120615988+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sda: 400.0 GB, 400088457216 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 48641 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 48641 390708801 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 60044 482303398+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 60045 60801 6080602+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 60045 60801 6080571 82 Linux swap / Solaris
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Ubuntu is Installed in SATA disk only. i thought Ubuntu is installed in IDE disk and Vista is in SATA disk.
remove GRUB form Vista Harddisk, SWAP SATA harddisks only and re-install Ubuntu. no need to wipe/format Ubuntu Harddisk again. select 'Use whole disk space' option in Partition Section during installation and Installer will remove/create/format partitions.

OMG... thank you SO much, I would not have figured that out.

It works perfectly now.

On a side note... is Ubuntu a good distribution? Would you recommend any others?

Thanks again...

ben

i am glad i could help you.

Quote:

---

On a side note... is Ubuntu a good distribution? Would you recommend any others?

---

Ubuntu is one of the Best Linux distro and so are Fedora, SuSe and Slackware. try as many as you can and stick with one that suits you. check this thread.