[SOLVED] Ubuntu & XP SP3 dual boot on a two-HDD PC

[artonson]

Hi there. I'm experiencing a trouble booting my Ubuntu Linux on a PC that has two HDDs in it (I believe that might be a part of my problem). Trust me I've googled and searched and read other people's questions but i just couldn't find anything similar to what I'm having here. Also, I'm an unexperienced Linux user yet so I might write things that have nothing to do with my problem so I'm sorry.
So here's my thing.

I got a PC that has two physical drives install in it, one is a newer 500 GB Seagate ST3500417AS and the second is an older 80 GB Seagate ST380011A. The 500 GB disk is recognised by the BIOS to be a "Third IDE master" and the 80 GB is a "Primary IDE Master" (not sure if this matters at all). The motherboard is an old Asus P4P800, and the CPU is Intel P4 (old, single-core).

Okay, what I want to do is to have dual-boot system that would boot both Windows and Linux. I've partitioned the 500 GB HDD into several parts and installed WinXP into one of them, that went well and I had no trouble at all. Then I've installed Ubuntu from a Live CD just like the following (that's Ubuntu 9.04 that I tried in the first place). I took one of the partitions and partitioned it further into 3 parts: the part where Linux system files would go (mounted as "/", ext3), the linux-swap part, and the part where user files would go (mounted as "/home"). On the last page of Ubuntu installation settings I checked the booter dialog and it said that a boot software will be installed into hd0. The installation was fine, but when I removed the Live CD from the tray and tried to reboot no booter screen appeared — just Win XP loaded as if nothing had happened.

I inserted the Live CD back into the tray and tried to figure out what was going on. I found that Ubuntu was successfully installed and all the files were there, and even the booter called GRUB was in /boot/grub folder. But during the boot, no GRUB screen would appear!

Just the same was with Ubuntu 8.04 release.

Please help me to find what I'm doing wrong. Also feel free to ask any questions regarding the issue.

[Lostfarmer]

Get into the 'bios/cmos', you likely have the hdd with XP as the boot device , change it to the other hdd.

[coopstah13]

I'm guessing that grub was installed into the 80g hd, the best way to install linux is to unplug all secondary drives and then install, then connect your other drive after

[artonson]

Okay now i've installed Ubuntu like you said and GRUB runs on boot, but when I connect the 80g drive, Windows can not boot (but Linux can boot).

Oh I think I should reinstall both OSs...

[coopstah13]

That is not necessary, we can configure grub to boot windows with no problem. Boot up into linux, open a terminal, and execute these commands. Make sure the windows HD is plugged in.

sudo fdisk -l
cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

[artonson]

Make sure the windows HD is plugged in.

You mean the 80g HD?

sudo fdisk -l
cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

Okay I did this with 80g plugged in, it made some output to the terminal, but Windows still cannot boot.

BTW when Windows is trying to boot, it writes

NTLDR is missing.

[coopstah13]

The point was for you to post the output from those commands, in order to get windows to boot. So please rerun them and post the output. I realize I didn't explicitly ask you to post the output, sorry.

[artonson]

The point was for you to post the output from those commands, in order to get windows to boot. So please rerun them and post the output. I realize I didn't explicitly ask you to post the output, sorry.

root@art-home:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x28f528f4

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        9728    78140128+   7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x48261cac

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1       13054   104856223+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2           13055       60800   383519745    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5           13055       19581    52428096    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb6           19582       25381    46588468+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb7           26109       60800   278663458+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb8           25382       25445      514048+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb9           25446       26108     5325516   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
root@art-home:~# cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
#            grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
#            grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
#            and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default		0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout		10

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line)  and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
#      password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title		Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root		(hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader	+1
#
# title		Linux
# root		(hd0,1)
# kernel	/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
##      kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=f19a8c2a-3b4f-44f7-a7fd-cafc3d242947 ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=f19a8c2a-3b4f-44f7-a7fd-cafc3d242947

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
##      alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
##      lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
##      lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
##      altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
##      howmany=7
# howmany=all

## specify if running in Xen domU or have grub detect automatically
## update-grub will ignore non-xen kernels when running in domU and vice versa
## e.g. indomU=detect
##      indomU=true
##      indomU=false
# indomU=detect

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
##      memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title		Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic
uuid		f19a8c2a-3b4f-44f7-a7fd-cafc3d242947
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=f19a8c2a-3b4f-44f7-a7fd-cafc3d242947 ro quiet splash 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic
quiet

title		Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic (recovery mode)
uuid		f19a8c2a-3b4f-44f7-a7fd-cafc3d242947
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=f19a8c2a-3b4f-44f7-a7fd-cafc3d242947 ro  single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

title		Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+
uuid		f19a8c2a-3b4f-44f7-a7fd-cafc3d242947
kernel		/boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title		Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title		Microsoft Windows XP Professional
rootnoverify	(hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader	+1

root@art-home:~#

[DaGoomba]

NTLDR may not be missing, just misplaced. Try looking in C:\WINDOWS\I386 if you find it, copy it to sys32.

[artonson]

NTLDR may not be missing, just misplaced. Try looking in C:\WINDOWS\I386 if you find it, copy it to sys32.

No, I think NT loader just looks in the wrong place.
But I need help to understand what to change in GRUB's menu.lst to get it working.