no boot XP after FC4

[J. Refugio Rodriguez]

--- Grant Allan <grant at forum8.co.nz> wrote:

> > On Fri, 2005-10-21 at 07:53 +1300, Grant Allan
> wrote:
> >> hi,
> >>
> >> just installed FC4 into empty partition on same
> drive as WindowsXP
> >> (disk1).  i'm aiming for dual-boot using NTLDR
> menu.
> >>
> >> i think i messed something up, cos now during
> reboot i get told that
> >> NTLDR
> >> can't be found.  strange thing is, when i boot
> from SystemRecoveryCD,
> >> and
> >> then choose the option to boot from "disk1",
> WindowsXP boots fine (and
> >> so
> >> obviously NTLDR is there after all).
> >
> > No, it's not.  XP boots because it's partition is
> "active" but the
> > actual boot loader that belongs in the MBR is
> missing.  You need to
> > either reinstall NTLDR or install grub as your
> boot manager.
> 
> hi again,
> 
> i already have a file named NTLDR in my C:\
> directory.  when you say to
> 'install' it, do i have to get a copy of that NTLDR
> into my MBR?  is that
> what FDISK /MBR would do?
> 
> thanks for your advice,
> grant
> 

I do not see a need to mess with NTLDR.

The problem usually lies with the hidden WinXX
BOOT.INI file in your root (C:\) directory.

Once you boot from the recovery CD, change (if you are
not there yet) to the root directory of your WinXX
system.

Uncover the referenced file thus:

ATTRIB -A -S -H -R BOOT.INI

And then open the file (with a text editor) thus:

NOTEPAD BOOT.INI

Observe the contents of the file; most likely it will
resemble the following:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP (version) Edition"
/fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Yours may be slightly different in wording and options
but the important issue is to observe the partition
number: 1. WinXX is selecting the first partition to
boot into but your Fedora Grub may have relegated it
to partition number two.

Hence modify your WinXX BOOT.INI to reflect that
change by Fedora's Grub. After the [operating system]
modify the partition to look like below:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP (version) Edition"
/fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Now when you boot your machine, you will see the WinXX
Boot manager with two options: the default and the
added/modified as explained above; select the second
option (not the default) and you should boot into
WinXX again.

If successful, you may want to modify the default
partition to number 2 and you will boot into WinXX
without any action on your part.

The line after [operating systems] might be used to
boot your Fedora since apparently Grub changed the
boot order.

We will take it from there after you fix the above; it
will require a bit more work.

Regards.

Jose Refugio Rodriguez
http://www.metztli-it.com