R: I need Help RedHat-Windows XP

Sat Apr 30 15:54:16 UTC 2005


> -----Original Message-----
> From: redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:redhat-install-list-
> bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Roberto
> Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2005 7:41 AM
> To: 'Getting started with Red Hat Linux'
> Subject: R: R: I need Help RedHat-Windows XP
> 
> Dear sir,
> I have other computers with windows Xp, but the problem is that the one
> with
> all these problems is a laptop, and I really don't know how to connect its
> hard drive with the home pc.
> All I can give you is the two texts you asked me, one is the Grub.conf and
> the other is what it says with the command fdisk -l.
> Here you are:
> 
> This is what fdisk -l, says
> 
> 
> Disk /dev/hda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
> Units = cilindri of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> 
> Dispositivo Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/hda1             103         109       56196   de  Dell Utility
> /dev/hda2             110        6592    52074697+  17  HPFS/NTFS nascosto
> /dev/hda3   *        6593        7296     5654880   83  Linux
> /dev/hda4               1         102      819283+  82  Linux swap
> 
> Partition table entries are not in disk order
> 
> and this is grub.conf
> 
> # grub.conf generated by anaconda
> #
> # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this
> file
> # NOTICE:  You do not have a /boot partition.  This means that
> #          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
> #          root (hd0,2)
> #          kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda3
> #          initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
> #boot=/dev/hda
> default=1
> timeout=5
> splashimage=(hd0,2)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
> hiddenmenu
> password --md5 $1$coSYMo7e$uQxMlBU84WHUB.uVSusUJ1
> title Red Hat Desktop (2.6.9-5.EL)
>         root (hd0,2)
>         kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.9-5.EL ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
>         initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.9-5.EL.img
> title Windows XP
>         rootnoverify (hd0,1)
>         chainloader +1
> 
> b after making changes to this file
> tion.  This means that
> re relative to /, eg.
> 
> ro root=/dev/hda3
> mg
> 
> 
> 
> .gz
> 
> .uVSusUJ1
> 
> 
> ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
> mg
> 
> 
> 
> ~
> ~
> 
> 
> I really hope that with these someone can help me.
> Thank you all.
> PS.: I'm planning to erase linux partition, transform it in a ntfs one and
> install there WinXp. Then from this read the data of the other WinXP
> partition and save them (about 25GB) in my external usb HD. At the end I
> will format everything, reinstall windows in its partition and then Linux
> in
> its one too.
> Do you think that this will work? Or will I be as now?
> 
> Bye Bye,
> Roberto, Italy
> 
> -----Messaggio originale-----
> Da: redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com
> [mailto:redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com] Per conto di Chris Hewitt
> Inviato: sabato 30 aprile 2005 12.47
> A: Getting started with Red Hat Linux
> Oggetto: Re: R: I need Help RedHat-Windows XP
> 
> On Sat, 2005-04-30 at 03:39, Roberto wrote:
> > Thank you very much for your reply.
> > I've just tried the  commands you told me to use in the last part of you
> > reply, but nothing seems to be changed.
> > In fact windows xp crashes with a blue screen that say that Session
> Manager
> > Initialization has stopped in un unattended way, and so the system has
> been
> > closed.
> > In these conditions I really can do nothing, I am not able to reinstall
> > windows without erasing its partition and with that all my important
> data.
> > It's for this reason I asked you for a way to recover and save my
> Windows
> > files from Linux, that is now the only os I can start.
> > Thank you again
> 
> Roberto,
> 
> Without installing support for it, Linux cannot read the NTFS filesystem
> that a modern MS Windows uses. Microsoft do not give out the details, so
> the support under Linux is effectively reverse-engineered and not as
> good as we would like.
> 
> Do you have another computer running MS Windows? If so, what I would do
> is to take out the disc drive and put it as a second drive into the
> other computer. MS Windows will recognise this as a data drive and you
> can back up your files. Then you can re-install both MS Windows and
> Linux following Rick's good advice.
> 
> Alternatively, there are recovery utilities that come with MS Windows.
> You would need to look up how to use these.
> 
> Almost certainly, there is no damage to your MS Windows installation, it
> is just that it is not booting properly. This is probably because the
> settings in the Linux boot loader (called grub) are not quite correct
> for your particular MS Windows installation. I dual boot with MS Windows
> 2000 but XP behaves somewhat differently, but if under Linux you can do
> these commands as root and send us the output I'm sure people on this
> list can help. Do "less /boot/grub/grub.conf" (you can scroll up and
> down with the arrow keys and "q" will quit). This file shows how it is
> trying to boot. Also run "fdisk -l" (this gives the partition
> information for your hard disc).
> 
> When installing any operating system it is a very good idea to have any
> existing important files backed up first.
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Chris
> 
You might try this and it might work, get your windows rescue disk and
execute the command fdisk /mbr and this should allow you to boot windows it
will wipe out the grub stuff and then use the commands that you have been
given to reinstall grub to the mbr.  This use to work, don't know if it
still will.