FC4: grub no longer allows windows booting

[oldman]

Craig White wrote:

>On Wed, 2005-08-17 at 08:19 -0700, oldman wrote:
>
>  
>
>>    Doesn't work in my situation The console says it found a bad boot 
>>says it replaced it, but
>>can't boot to it.  Heres my disk:
>>Disk /dev/hda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
>>255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
>>Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
>>
>>   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
>>/dev/hda1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
>>/dev/hda2              14       14592   117105817+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
>>/dev/hda5              14        1288    10241406    7  HPFS/NTFS
>>/dev/hda6            1289        3200    15358108+  83  Linux
>>/dev/hda7            3201        3264      514048+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
>>/dev/hda8            3265        4539    10241406   83  Linux
>>/dev/hda9            4540        4794     2048256   83  Linux
>>/dev/hda10           4795        6619    14659281   83  Linux
>>
>>my grub.conf sets root to (hd0,4) but gives me an error, something like 
>>bad executable.
>>    
>>
>----
>you might want to post the contents of /boot/grub/grub.conf
>----
>  
>
>>Interestingly, fixboot did not affect the MBR, as grub boots normally.
>>    
>>
>----
>FIXBOOT isn't supposed to do a thing to the MBR.
>FIXMBR would do that but that would be disastrous to grub and booting
>Linux
>----
>  
>
>>  
>>The only thing I can think of is that Win2k
>>doesn't like being on an  extended partition, but what is fixboot 
>>writing, and where is it writing to?  Beats the hell out of me!
>>    
>>
>----
>Win2K should be fine with where it is, it just needs to know where it
>is.
>
>Might be interesting to know what is in C:\boot.ini which you can look
>at if you boot Win2K/WinXP System Restore CD and enter Recovery mode
>(Console) - This is the thing that FIXBOOT is supposed to operate upon.
>----
>  
>
    Well, I finally got around to figuring it out.  FIXBOOT does not 
mess with boot.ini it operates on the 1st sector of the (Windows) 
partition which is the 2nd stage of the boot process (pretty much like 
GRUB). anyway, sure would have been nice if M$ wold have included an 
editor in the recovery console. Had to make a new boot.ini on a floppy 
run a unix2dos on it and copy it over to C:\.  It works again (though 
still I may not use it much, as I have a Rawhide, FC4 and considering 
putting in UBUNTU or OpenSuse,  just  'cause I need to mess with something.

>>Any way, sorry for the bum steer to Noah.  I'll probably get around to 
>>wiping Windows one of these days (haven't booted it in about a year - 
>>Maybe I'll just get another linux distro).
>>    
>>
>----
>that wasn't a bum steer, that was an opportunity to wreak havoc. Telling
>people to re-install Windows when it isn't necessary is better left to
>the support staff at Dell/Sony/HP-Compaq/Gateway/etc.
>
>Craig
>	
>  
>
    Couldn't disagree more, actually.  I have reinstalled Windows 
several times.  Sometimes with no erase sometimes with.  Knowing how all 
this stuff works is always a good idea. And I learn best and quickest 
from recoverng from a screwup :-)

Scott