SuSE 9.3 and XP

Okay, I have XP on the first 25 gigs of my 40 gig harddrive and then I have Linux on the last 15, once I installed SuSE it comes up and says "Grub Hard Drive Error" or something of the sorts, but when I put in the SuSE CD's and select boot from harddrive it boots fine, I was wondering if it is because of that 1024 rule? Is it possible for me to edit my boot.ini and then go into SuSE and disable grub (set to none instead of GRUB or LILO)?

If so, what would I put for it since my current boot.ini is as follows:

Code:

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[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

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Is there a way to allow me to keep this setup or would I have to reformat to get a clean install of them? :cry: sorry this is my first time experimenting with linux.

signed,
*confused kid*
Chris

I don't get what you want to do, remove GRUB?

Boot with the WinXP, go to the recovery console and type FIXMBR.

What I was wondering was if there was a way for me to have a dual boot system without having to reformat my harddrive again, since linux is past the 1024 cylinder limit or whatever, so it won't load grub correctly. I could put a small partition closer to the center of the hdd, around 100mb. Would there be a way that I (a newbie) could easily set it to give me the choice of whether to boot to Windows XP Pro or SuSE 9.3 Professional?

There is a way to let NTLDR handle the dual boot requirements of your system. This thread contains some very useful links and instructions on how to accomplish this. It isn't that difficult and is how I first set my machine up to dual boot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by retired1af

There is a way to let NTLDR handle the dual boot requirements of your system. This thread contains some very useful links and instructions on how to accomplish this. It isn't that difficult and is how I first set my machine up to dual boot.

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Thanks for the quick response. I'm going to have to try to figure out what most of this is talking about tomorrow when I'm slightly more coharent.:oops:

I am not that computer literate (atleast compared to where I hope to be), so understanding this is difficult, I'm going to have to try to break it down into simpler steps and pray to god that I can get this working.

What would I put in boot.ini to boot to Suse 9.3 pro?

Code:

---

[boot loader]
timeout=25
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect 
/NoExecute=OptIn

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Is it now, but should it be something like:

Code:

---

[boot loader]
timeout=25
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect 
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\Linux="SuSE Linux 9.3 Professional"
/NoExecute=OptIn

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Since Linux is on my second partition on my harddrive(and past the 1024 cylinder mark)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by foulplay

since linux is past the 1024 cylinder limit or whatever, so it won't load grub correctly.

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Shouldn't be a problem. Mine's WAY past the 1024 cylinder limit and boots fine. I have a 5GB C partition, a 10GB D partition, and also a 2GB E partition before ANY of my linux drives. Then for the Gentoo drives, i have an additional 50GB of SuSE partitions before the Gentoo ones ;) So i'd b fairly sure that 67GB would be > 1024 cylinders ;)

Try booting the system off the CD then go into YaST and reinstall grub. (make sure u uncheck the box that says leave code in MBR untouched)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sdousley

Quote:

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Originally Posted by foulplay

since linux is past the 1024 cylinder limit or whatever, so it won't load grub correctly.

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Shouldn't be a problem. Mine's WAY past the 1024 cylinder limit and boots fine. I have a 5GB C partition, a 10GB D partition, and also a 2GB E partition before ANY of my linux drives. Then for the Gentoo drives, i have an additional 50GB of SuSE partitions before the Gentoo ones ;) So i'd b fairly sure that 67GB would be > 1024 cylinders ;)

Try booting the system off the CD then go into YaST and reinstall grub. (make sure u uncheck the box that says leave code in MBR untouched)

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Edit: Tried both checked and unchecked, still no luck....I get "GRUB Hard Disk Error" when I start up... :-(

Thanks for the help :wink: ,
Chris

Is your BIOS capable of supporting LBA on your drives? If so, ensure it's active.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by retired1af

Is your BIOS capable of supporting LBA on your drives? If so, ensure it's active.

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I'm not sure what LBA is but I couldn't find any options that could even be abbreviated LBA......so I'm assuming it doesn't support it or it does and I don't know about it. :cry: