Dual Boot, Grub, FC3-WinXpSP2, 2 drives. No go.

[Craig White]

On Tue, 2005-03-01 at 01:00 -0500, Robert Locke wrote:
> On Mon, 2005-02-28 at 17:55 -0500, Nat Gross wrote:
> <snip>
> > I thought so, too. But I just mounted both (vfat and ntfs) partitions 
> > under FC3, and there is no boot.ini file. At this point I am certain 
> > that for some reason (maybe due to an earlier install of Windows) 
> > Windows kept the boot.ini on C, hda, and used that to boot from E.
> > 
> This is beginning to sound problematic and more of a Windows thing....
> 
> I am guessing that perhaps we would need to "repair" the Windows
> installation.  Offhand, I am not sure how to do this and I think that it
> will most likely attempt to overwrite the MBR part of the first disk.
> This is not necessarily a huge problem in that a quick linux rescue
> followed by a grub re-installation of the first stage bootloader can
> correct the damage potentially done by the Windows repair....
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > One key question is, does grub require that I make hdb5 bootable?
> > 
> So to speak.  GRUB is passing control to the NTLDR and BOOT.INI files.
> Remember that they are hidden/system files usually, so depending on how
> you tried to locate them might be why you did not see them (probably a
> pipe dream)???
> 
> I think at this stage you may be looking to get some advice on how to
> repair the Windows partition unless someone else wants to jump in with
> advice on that side....
----
I'm coming in late in the game - NTLDR and BOOT.INI would normally be
found in c:\ and they are invisible files - you wouldn't normally see
them in Windows unless you set all files visible including system files.

If the 'C' drive was removed, then these files no longer exist.

You can boot Windows Install CD - go to recover console, and type
"FIXBOOT"

should fix that problem

another option is FIXMBR but that might be a mistake if you want grub to
chain the bootloader - remember though that grub should be chaining to
the proper drive hd(?,0) and the ? is likely to be a number like 1 or 2
or 3 depending on how many hard drives are installed

Craig