Windows wont boot

**nzstef** · 04-01-2005

Hi everyone

I've recently decided to install a new distro on my laptop, and I would like this distro to work as a dual boot with Windows just like it did previously. I chose Fedora Core 3, but after the install, GRUB does seem to be working properly.
I can boot Fedora just fine, but when trying to boot windows, it hangs.
My partition table looks as follows:

Code:

&#91;root@Knoppix ~&#93;# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda&#58; 60.0 Gb, 60011642880 byte
225 hoveder, 63 sektorer/spor, 8268 cylindre
Enheder = cylindre af 14175 * 512 = 7257600 byte

    Enhed Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1        4334    30716248+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2            4334        6302    13944672    f  W95 Ext'd &#40;LBA&#41;
/dev/hda3            6303        8180    13301820   83  Linux
/dev/hda4            8180        8269      634567+  82  Linux swap
/dev/hda5            4334        6302    13944388+   7  HPFS/NTFS

At first hand, I can't really see anything wrong with it.
My grub.conf file looks as follows:

Code:

 GNU nano 1.2.4             Fil&#58; /boot/grub/grub.conf

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE&#58;  You do not have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
#          root &#40;hd0,2&#41;
#          kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda3
#          initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=1
timeout=5
splashimage=&#40;hd0,2&#41;/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core &#40;2.6.9-1.667&#41;
        root &#40;hd0,2&#41;
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
        initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img
title Windows XP Professional
        rootnoverify &#40;hd0,0&#41;
        chainloader +1

I've tried several things such as adding "makeactive" to the grub.conf file, but nothing has worked so far.
Please help me out. I'm completely green, and really want to get to all my old file, which are of course on the first NTFS partition.

Thanks
Steffen

**Nerderello** · 04-01-2005

first, have you had a look at the two tutorials on this subject on this site ?

The general booting Linux and Windows one (and how to get rid of grub, should you want to) :-

http://www.linuxforums.org/tutorials...rial-3573.html

and the trying to fix grub problems one :-

http://www.linuxforums.org/tutorials...ial-19999.html

Second:-

Looking at your fdisk it shows three possible windows partitions

/dev/hda1 and /dev/hda2 and /dev/hda5. Your grub.conf shows you trying to boot /dev/hda1 (grub counts from zero not one). Is this correct?

Looking at my own grub.conf I have (for win9

Code:

title Windoze
	map &#40;hd0&#41; &#40;hd1&#41;
	map &#40;hd1&#41; &#40;hd0&#41;
        rootnoverify &#40;hd1,0&#41;
	makeactive
        chainloader +1

The "map" stuff is because I have windows on not the first hard disk, and Uncle Bill's software doesn't like this. But apart from that, it looks very much like yours.

What sort of error messages do you get when you try?

Nerderello
[/b]

**nzstef** · 04-02-2005

Thanks for the help, but still no luck

I should of course mention, that my Windows partition is on hda1, so the grub.conf should be alright.
I've even tried to reinstall the Windows bootloader from the XP CD, but even this didn't work so I really don't have many more ideas left...
What puzzled me a little was, that there is a * by the windows partition under "boot" in the partition table - is this right or should it be changed?
Thanks again

**Nerderello** · 04-03-2005

yes the "*" is fine.

I have read some stuff about problems because it being a laptop, so you may want to check out :- http://www.linux-laptop.net/

Nerderello

**nzstef** · 04-03-2005

Hey thanks for the tip. Still not booting windows, but figured out how to solve problems in FC3

So now the battery works properly and my screen resolution is back to normal (1280x800).

But back to the boot problem. I don't really get any error messages, just a screen saying:

Code:

Booting "Windows XP Professional"
rootnoverify &#40;hd0,0&#41;
chainloader +1

And that's it. I've started to suspect that there's something wrong in windows, but I'm not quite sure what. Tried to run

Code:

bootcfg /rebuild

from the recovery console on the Win Xp CD, but nothing changed. I'm getting pretty desperate now, as a really need my files in Windows.

Thanks

**Nerderello** · 04-04-2005

I don't know Ubantu distro, but, as a possible work around, have you tried mounting the WinXp disk from within Linux? That way you'd be able to read (but not write) your windows files.

You'll need to :-
1. Create a mount point (a folder to you and me), by

Code:

mkdir /mnt/windoze

2. Then mount your windows partition by :-

Code:

mount /dev/hda1  /mnt/windoze

3. Then use you windows partition as if it were just another set of folders (ie. use you favorite file manager and go into /mnt/windoze to find all of your winows files and folders).

If this works for you, you may like to consider amending /etc/fstab to make the mounting automagical and permenant (other wise steps 2 and 3 need repeateing after every boot).

hope this helps

Nerderello

**scm** · 04-06-2005

Windows won't boot and you think you have a problem?

**nzstef** · 04-06-2005

Well thanks for telling me how to mount my Windows partition - it succeeded! I was able to get to all my files, and of course the first thing I did was to make a backup copy

After this, I decided however to completely erase my partition table and start over

Dunno if this was the right thing to do, but at least now it works again - gonna wait installing Linux again until after my exams, but I haven't given up yet!
Thanks for the help

**kgs_mvs** · 06-11-2005

If your windows was on an ntfs partition and you resized it (or the Fedora install did), it's possible that the partition table got messed up during the installation. I recently used ubuntu 5.04 to resize my ntfs partition for windows xp and it worked very well - you have to take a deep breath and work your way through all the horrible warnings, but it was worth it. If you are using an ntfs partition, check out the following site to see if there's anything there that can help:

http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html

Cheers.

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