XP / Suse 10.2 Multibooting problems

[RTS-Bone]

Hi,

I have recently installed Suse 10.2 and I can't seen to be able to boot on my old Win XP Pro anymore....


I have 3 partitions:

3GB - ext3 (Suse 10.2)
3GB - NTFS (Windows XP Pro)
100GB - NTFS (Data)


I had installed TinyXP Rev03 (Win Xp PRO) on my 3GB NTFS partition, and then I decided to install Suse. So I installed it on my 3GB FAT32 partition which apparently is ext3 now...

The problem is, SuSe is working perfectly but I didn't have the option to boot on my old XP anymore. So I did some research, I ran Boot Loader in YaST2 and added a new boot option( Chainloader section ) and as the other system I chose: /dev/hda5



I check my partitions:

/dev/hda.....114GB.......Type: Maxtor....
/dev/hda1....509.8MB...Type: Linux swap.......Mount: swap
/dev/hda2....110.5........Type: Extended
/dev/hda3....3.4GB.......Type: Linux native
/dev/hda5....3.9GB.......Type: HPFS/NTFS.....Mount: /windows/C
/dev/hda5....106.6GB...Type: HPFS/NTFS.....Mount: /windows/D


when I go to /dev/hda5 it looks exactly as my old partition on which I had installed windows... all the files are intact and it seems ok, so choosing /dev/hda5 as the "other system" option in boot loader seemed ok to me.

I restart, get the suse booting screen and the Win XP choice is there. Anxiously, I select Win XP and the screen turns black and I get these 2 lines:

tnoverify (hd0,0)
inloader(hd0,4)+1

The first letters of these lines might be missing because I cant see the whole left side of the screen but apparantly something is wrong and I can't boot my WinXP anymore


If you have any suggestions they will be highly appreciated....

Thanks a lot in advance.

[devils casper]

hi RTS-Bone,

Welcome to the LinuxForums.

log in as root and execute 'fdisk -l' command in terminal/konsole. post output here.





Casper

[RTS-Bone]

Hi devils_casper,

Thank you for your help


This is the output from my "fdisk-l" command:

Disk /dev/hda: 122.9 GB, 122942324736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14946 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1          65      522081   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda2             511       14945   115949137+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda3   *          66         510     3574462+  83  Linux
/dev/hda5             511        1020     4096543+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda6            1021       14945   111852531    7  HPFS/NTFS

Partition table entries are not in disk order

I have removed the Win XP option from Boot loader...

Thanks again.

[navik_pathak]

hi RTS... how you have created partion in your XP?

[RTS-Bone]

I'm not sure what you mean, but let's say when I installed SuSe I chose a 3GB FAT32 partition and 7MB of unpartitioned space... or something like that

I supposed that SuSe installation would take care of the partition format by itself...

[navik_pathak]

can you please let me know
How did you created that unpartitioned space?

Thanks

[devils casper]

hi RTS-Bone,

log in as root and open /boot/grub/menu.lst file.
add this code at the end of file

title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
map (hd0,4) (hd0,0)
map (hd0,0) (hd0,4)
chainloader +1

save file and reboot.





Casper

[RTS-Bone]

Thanks for your help,


I tried that and Windows XP appeared as a boot option, however when I entered I got the following message:

rootnoverify (hd0,4)
map (hd0,4) (hd0,0)
map (hd0,0) (hd0,4)
chainloader +1

Pretty strange, if this isn't possible then is there a way I could get my windows back ? Even if it involves getting rid of SuSe for the moment? Like uninstalling SuSe and being able to access Windows XP again.

Thanks.

How did you created that unpartitioned space?

When you delete partitions, only unpartitioned space remains

[devils casper]

Pretty strange, if this isn't possible then is there a way I could get my windows back ? Even if it involves getting rid of SuSe for the moment? Like uninstalling SuSe and being able to access Windows XP again.

i dont think removing SuSe will sort out this problem. did you shrink Windows partition for Creating space for SuSe?






Casper

[RTS-Bone]

By shrink you mean deleting all other partitions except the windows one in order to install SuSe? If so, no... I installed SuSe on a 3GB partition that was FAT32... I supposed the installer would take care of the partition's format and everything...

Moreover, I didn't touch the windows partition before installing SuSe... however, the windows files seem to be intact on the old partition and I don't see why the data would be lost.. maybe a windows repair using the CD would work? I'm open to any other suggestions...

Thanks.