[SOLVED] Grub won't boot XP... was working fine before

[AshtaFelix]

Hi, I'm a Linux Newbie.

I've installed Fedora 13 on a separate partition to Windows XP. After a few hiccups, I managed to get them both working harmoniously... for a few hours. Now, when I select the XP option in grub, it just hangs on a black screen.

The output of fdisk -l is:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc0bf6260

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        9817    78847968+   7  HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2           18814       19451     5124735   1c  Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda3           19452       19457       48195   ef  EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sda4            9817       18813    72266752    5  Extended
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5            9817        9881      512000   83  Linux
/dev/sda6            9881       10518     5120000   83  Linux
/dev/sda7           10518       10773     2048000   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 4024 MB, 4024958976 bytes
110 heads, 45 sectors/track, 1588 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 4950 * 512 = 2534400 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x219d219c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               2        1589     3926528    b  W95 FAT32

and the my grub/menu.lst has the following:

# 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 (hd0,4)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda6
#          initrd /initrd-[generic-]version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,4)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686)
	root (hd0,4)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686 ro root=UUID=0a2cc273-6fc4-4bc1-bba8-c9468e940a88 rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet
	initrd /initramfs-2.6.33.5-112.fc13.i686.img
title Fedora (2.6.33.3-85.fc13.i686)
	root (hd0,4)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.i686 ro root=UUID=0a2cc273-6fc4-4bc1-bba8-c9468e940a88 rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet
	initrd /initramfs-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.i686.img
title XP
	rootnoverify (hd0,0)
	savedefault
	makeactive
	chainloader +1

Remember, I am new and I have no programming background, so please be gentle!

Kind regards in advance for any help,
AshtaFelix

[AshtaFelix]

I should also add that I can access the partition which windows is on from Fedora and all of my files and docs are there, safe and sound.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong! Help!?

[devils casper]

Something is wrong with Windows OS only. GRUB Configuration file is correct. Try to remove GRUB and check if Windows OS boot up.

Boot up from Windows OS installation CD and select Repair. Execute fixmbr command at repair prompt. It will remove GRUB. GRUB Menu will not appear on reboot and Windows OS will boot up by default.

Its easy to re-install GRUB any time. Fix Windows OS problem first.

[AshtaFelix]

Thanks for your reply devils casper.

Unfortunately I cannot boot from a Windows OS installation CD as I have an Asus Eee pc 1005HA which does not have an optical drive. I do, however, have a windows recovery partition, which I can boot from (I have had to do this once before).

[devils casper]

Is Windows OS booting up fine on using recovery partition?

[AshtaFelix]

Yes, booting from the recovery partition is not a problem.

I have also noticed that when I boot to Fedora, it also hangs on the black screen with white cursor for just a little while before booting.

[AshtaFelix]

So, does this mean that the only way to fix the mbr in my case is by recovering Windows completely?

[devils casper]

Try to remove GRUB using SuperGRUB CD/USB. It has an option to Fix Windows Boot. You can re-install GRUB using same CD/USB later on.

[AshtaFelix]

Although I didn't end up using your solution, devils casper (I wanted to resize my windows partition anyway, so I started from scratch), I worked out WHY Windows booted once and then never again: I had the Bootbooster in BIOS enabled when it should have been disabled before installing Windows. >.<

[devils casper]

I didn't about BootBooster. Thanx for info and I am glad that you have sorted out your problem !
Enjoy Linux World !!