Installed Fedora over Windows Boot Loader

[phil_a]

Alright, so the situation is this:
I have two hard drives, one (hard drive C) is 250GB and is the first hard disk. The second (hard drive Z) is 1000 GB and is the second hard disk in order. There used to be windows XP on C and Windows 7 on Z.

Because I installed 7 to Z from XP which is on C, it put the Windows Boot Loader on hard disk C. I didn't know this until now.

When I installed Fedora, I gave it all of C to install on. That messed up something because the Windows Boot Loader was on that drive, so grub didn't list it in the OS's to load. I had to add it manually, and got it working correctly so it had an entry for the partition that Windows 7 was on. This didn't work however, because Windows 7 on drive Z didn't have it's NTLDR on that drive, so now I have a 7 installation without an NTLDR on Z and a Fedora install on C. I am sure grub is working properly because when I change the load order of the hard drives to load Z first, it gives the same error:

NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to restart

or something along those lines.

Is there a way to get Z to have an NTLDR again and be able too boot Windows 7? I really hope I didn't mess up my entire 7 installation because of this.

Thanks.

[yancek]

Are you able to boot Fedora? If not, use the Fedora CD and log in as root user and run the command: fdisk -l (lower case letter L) to show your partition information and post it here.

Windows 7 (as well as vista) does not have an NTLDR file, they both use a different bootloader than xp did. Which drive do you have set to first boot priority, the 250GB? Which operating systems, if any are you able to boot into? Do you mean to keep xp? or just win 7 and Fedora? You should be able to easily boot xp from the win 7 bootloader if you mean to keep both. Trying to boot win 7 from xp will entail some serious manual configuration on your part.

Post your partition info, and I expect you will be able to get specific suggestions.

[phil_a]

Yes, I'm able to boot fedora fine. I have drive C (the 250GB with Fedora on it and used to have XP on it) to boot with first priority. I had in mind to completely erase XP and replace it with Fedora, while keeping Windows 7 on the 1TB drive (Z). The Windows Boot Loader was on the C drive which was completely given to Fedora when I installed it.

Here's fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 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: 0xa471a940

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1      121601   976760001    7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 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: 0x56c156c1

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          64      512000   83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2              64       30402   243685376   8e  Linux LVM

Disk /dev/dm-0: 53.7 GB, 53687091200 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 6527 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: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-1: 5570 MB, 5570035712 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 677 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: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-2: 190.3 GB, 190253629440 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 23130 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: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-2 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/sdc: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 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: 0xf87b4c9a

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *           1       30401   244196001    7  HPFS/NTFS

Sorry, I couldn't find code tags.
EDIT: Added [code] tags.

/dev/sda is the 250GB drive that Fedora is on and XP was on. /dev/sdb is the drive that Windows 7 is on.

Thank you very much for your help.

[yancek]

Boot Fedora. Log in as root user. Navigate to the /boot/grub/ directory and find the grub.conf file. I don't use Fedora so I am not sure what the text editor would be. Open the grub.conf file in a text editor and look to see if you have any entry for windows and if you do, not what it is and post it here..
If you don't have an entry (which would be very unusual), let us know.

It is usually better to have windows on the hard drive set to first boot priority in your BIOS but it is not necessary. Since your win 7 is on the second hard drive, first partition the following entry in grub.conf should work:

title Windows 7
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1

Try booting with this in your grub.conf. You might add something to the title line so you know which entry you are using, that is, if you have another entry already there. May title windows 7 test?

The entry above with the map commands is to have the windows bootloader think it is on the first drive which it likes a lot.

[phil_a]

I had no entry for Windows 7 in my grub.conf file initially. I searched around before on the internet, and found how to add one before posting here, I added this:

title Windows 7
	map (hd1) (hd0)
	map (hd0) (hd1)
	rootnoverify (hd1,0)
	makeactive
	chainloader +1
	boot

It gives the "NTLDR Missing..." error.

Also, if I have the hard drive that windows is on as first boot priority, I also get the NTLDR missing error.

[devils casper]

Code in grub.conf file is correct.

From your first post :

Is there a way to get Z to have an NTLDR again and be able too boot Windows 7? I really hope I didn't mess up my entire 7 installation because of this.

Its not easy to fix Windows 7 Installation now. Its boot files were in C: drive of other Hard disk. There is only one way to fix this. Copy boot files from Windows 7 installed in other machine, if you have access to any, and paste in your machine.
It worked for Windows XP but I am not sure if it will work for Windows 7.

[rwbenton]

Maybe you could unplug the C: drive and do a repair install of Windows 7.

I have not installed Windows 7 yet so I am not familiar with all the install procedures but in XP, you could go into rescue mode and run the fixmbr command. The other option was to do a repair install which would end up doing the same thing.

Once the mbr is set on Z:, plug C: back in and Fedora might be able to see it.

I have not had this problem nor tried what I say above so I would do a full backup prior to trying this.

[phil_a]

Maybe you could unplug the C: drive and do a repair install of Windows 7.

I have not installed Windows 7 yet so I am not familiar with all the install procedures but in XP, you could go into rescue mode and run the fixmbr command. The other option was to do a repair install which would end up doing the same thing.

Once the mbr is set on Z:, plug C: back in and Fedora might be able to see it.

I have not had this problem nor tried what I say above so I would do a full backup prior to trying this.

Would a repair install be expected to remove all the data on the hard drive?

[devils casper]

Repair will not work because its not windows boot loader problem. fixmbr or repair tools are just for fixing Windows Boot Loader only.
If boot files of Windows XP like boot.ini, ntldr, command.com etc are missing, Windows XP won't boot. fixmbr command doesn't create/install those files.

Same is with Windows 7. None of repair tool will create/install boot files. You have to copy those manually from working OS.

[phil_a]

Repair will not work because its not windows boot loader problem. fixmbr or repair tools are just for fixing Windows Boot Loader only.
If boot files of Windows XP like boot.ini, ntldr, command.com etc are missing, Windows XP won't boot. fixmbr command doesn't create/install those files.

Same is with Windows 7. None of repair tool will create/install boot files. You have to copy those manually from working OS.

Where are those files located at on a working system?