I need Help RedHat-Windows XP

[Rick Stevens]

Roberto wrote:
> Hi all. I’m new of this mailing list, and I am writing here because I 
> really need Help.
> 
> I’ve just installed my Red Hat Linux enterprise 4 in my pc, and I have a 
> big problem. Before the installation I used Partition Magic to partition 
> the hard disk in order to prepare it for the linux installation.

That's unnecessary unless you used it to shrink the Windows partition to
make room for Linux.  The easiest way is to install Windows first, but
make sure that Windows doesn't suck up all of the disk space by doing
a manual partition.  Leave the space NOT used by windows as "free" or
"unassigned".

Once that's done, install Linux.  When you come to the boot loader
screen, make sure you install the grub loader on the master boot record
of the drive ("/dev/hda" or "/dev/sda")--NOT in the Linux partition 
("/dev/hda1" or "/dev/sda1").  grub will create a config file that
allows you to boot either Linux or Windows (although the Windows boot
will be called "Other" in the boot menu).

> I used it with Windows XP and all seemed to be right.
> 
> But after the easy installation of the Red Hat OS, I was no more able to 
> use Windows! Actually every time  I start Windows Xp it says that 
> something is missed and before the user selection, the system crash 
> irremediably in a blue screen.

You messed up the boot loader configuration of Linux.  The only way to
save what you have is to boot Windows from the CD and restore the MBR
for Windows.  You'll the ability to boot Linux, though.  To recover
that, you need to boot your first Linux CD in recovery mode, then
do these commands:

	# chroot /mnt/sysimage
	# grub-install /dev/hda
	# exit
	# exit

That should install grub in the MBR of the first hard drive and restore
your ability to boot both OSes.

In the future, install Windows first, but make sure you manually tell it
to leave some of the disk free.  You can then install Linux and make
sure you tell it to install the boot loader on the MBR of the first
hard drive (not partition!).  Linux will take care of the rest.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-   Whoever said "Money can't buy friends" obviously never brought   -
-                        donuts to the office.                       -
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