Windows Linux or Mac?
POSTED BY: Haze
UPDATED: Saturday, April 8, 2006 06:42
VIEWED: 42858
PAGE 19 of 20
That's weird. Though I'm surprised spreading boot systems over two disks even worked. Where is GRUB resident? I assume it's on the same disk as Ubuntu? I'm surprised this worked, since the system can only handle one bootable volume, i.e. you should have all your OS on the same disk, with your bootstrap taking up the first 512bytes of that disk.
It's fine to have seperate partitions, but seperate physical drives shouldn't work.
I sounds like you can boot to Ubuntu, yes? if Grub and Ubuntu are on the same drive that makes sense, because the system wouldn't recognise the Windows drive as a bootable volume. Try taking the power lead of your second drive and seeing if Windows boots.
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No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity. But I know none, and therefore am no beast.
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It's the other way around. I can get only Windows XP to run. Some time back I saw a long description that had XP on the C:\ drive, and some distro of Linux on the D:\ drive, which was a second physical hard drive. The guy madethe comment that this was the easiest way to set up dual boot. But I can't find that link again.
I think grub was originally put onto the C drive by Ubuntu. I saw the grub screen once last night (late). Today I put on GAG because it looked nice. But then I never saw the grub screen again, and neither GAG nor "Ubuntu rescue" (boot from CD) give me any options to run Ubuntu. Windows says the c drive is now Disk 1 and is "healthy", as is disk 2 which used to be the D drive. I now have no D drive listed (but do have CD and DVD drives listed as E and F).
Windows will not allow me to rename the D drive to D. So there's no D drive at all. Doesn't show up on My Computer, but does in Disk Management.
NOthing I've found on Ubuntu discussions works to address this.
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Right. Maybe I'm behind the times, I really thought you could only have one boot volume. Anyway it sounds like there's something up with your second drive if windows can't mount it.
Since Grub and Ubuntu have disappeared I'd hazard a guess that your D drive was set up as the primary boot volume, and grub was on that. Try looking at your BIOS, specifically which drive is set up as the boot device? Can the BIOS see your second drive? (if windows can see it i'd say the BIOS should).
Try disconnecting the windows drive. If you can boot up into Ubuntu you know that the drives okay, otherwise theres a problem with your D: drive.
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Oh! hang on GAG (Graphical Boot Manager, in Spanish)? I bet that GAG has screwed up the boot sector on D: so that D: is no longer bootable. Since Grub was acting as the bootstrap for Ubuntu that would stop it from working.
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Forgot to mention, XP is on FAT 32.
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Suspected it (GAG) too. Any idea how to get grub back? Was about to stick in the Windows XP disk and try to fix the MBR, but I doubt it's the problem since XP works just fine.
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No, your XP is fine, as is it's bootstrap (the MBR is windows speak for the bootsector, or the first 512bytes of the disk) the problem is with Grub which was your master boot record which is now corrupted.
Unless someone with more Linux experience wants to weigh in (STDoubt?) I'd say the easiest option would be to reinstall Ubuntu and Grub as before.
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M'usuri sana, bwana.
Suspected as much. However, will mess with BIOS to see if I can default to Ubuntu before dicking away another couple hours.
All best,
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Up and running with Ubuntu, and for those who care, I didn't have to reinstall it. Diddled with the rescue bit of the installation CD, and finally tried typing "su" at the first prompt, WHICH NO GODDAMNED DOLT RUNNING UBUNTU EVER MENTIONED WAS NECESSARY, got to the ROOT and was able to reinstall GRUB. Far, far worse than the shitty writing for Microsoft are the piss-poor suggestions of EVERYONE (except for those on this particular thread) who suggests ANYTHING for Linux, which really doesn't help the folks like me who really don't have a clue how to get stuff to work. What is needed, desperately, is an EDITOR to clear up some of the instructions for installing and troubleshooting ALL these Linux installations. I searched the forums, and poor installer after poor installer had to ask the SAME questions concerning dual-boot, only to have nerd after nerd answer the questions with the most vague and high-tech answers possible. Such piss-poor efforts really gall a professional editor such as myself.
What a cluster-f*&^!! My heart goes out to those who want to try these systems but can't decipher the lousy "help" that is all over the internet. Only one source, a fellow who took immense pains to explain partitions and how the various operating systems use them, was above reproach. He had the clues and clear-cut information that finally led me to the solution. And mind you, I've only got Ubuntu to work again. Haven't yet seen the double-boot GRUB screen, and may have to spend another day dicking with this stuff until I can finally look at both XP and Ubuntu.
All for now. One day shot in the ass.... But I did learn something, I guess.
Kindest thanks to you, Citizen, for pointing me in several right directions. As I grow older I appreciate how much time can mean, one day at a time, and I'm deeply indebted to you for your generous assistance.
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Heya fellers-
Sorry I missed so many posts here.
Ruxton, you stop learning you will get old.
;-)
WRT your problem dual-booting, if you're seeing the
GRUB boot prompt, but no listing for XP, try this:
add the following to the end of your
/boot/grub/menu.lst file:
Quote:
title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
Save the file then run:
$ sudo update-grub (sudo is the way to get root on Ubuntu -via user password).
If grub comes back without an error then I'll
bet you a fruity oaty bar you'll now see
the XP option when you reboot (unless somehow the
windows install got Borked).
And now an FYI: The best place for GRUB to be
installed is hda1; that is, on the 1st partition
of your primary/master hard drive.
Ruxton, about your D:\ drive; Windows can't see
Linux partitions. Linux can see Windows partitions, but can have problems writing to NTFS.
That your XP is running on fat32 is nice since from ubuntu you'll be able to see and use the C:\ drive.(Edit: "c:\" = hda ;generally, hda1 since XP will make 1 partition on the primary master by default -yes it thinks it's THAT important ;-))
One thing that can throw you off is that GRUB has
its own convention for naming hard drives and
partitions. (hd0,0) = hda1. (hd0,1) = hda2.
(hd1,0) = hdb1 etc.
I'll be glad to help you in more detail if you want.
EDIT: P.S. you wanna stick with GRUB.
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