Cannot boot into XP Home from Grub

**chiefnz** · 11-08-2005, 08:28 AM

Two days ago I booted into Knoppix 3.8 (well tried to)... this failed and the last line on the screen said... Kernel Panic or something to that effect.

I then re-installed Knoppix and it booted fine but then I couldn't get into Windows XP Home from the boot loader (which was LILO I think)...

Several re-installs later I still had the same problem... where I can get into Knoppix but not Windows XP. I used the XP CD and via the Recovery console restored the MBR with the fixmbr command.

This got Windows XP booting but not Knoppix.

I then installed Ubuntu Linux 4.1... everything went fine but then I couldn't boot into Windows XP again but this time I was using the GRUB bootloader. When booting via GRUB and I select Windows XP it says...

Chain loader +1 ...but nothing else happens after that... I then had to use the Windows XP CD again to use fixmbr.

Does anyone know what the problem might be.

If push comes to shove I can re-install Ubuntu and use my BIOS boot menu to select which hard drive to boot from. I really don't want to do that and I have had GRUB work perfectly fine in the past.

The OS's are setup as follows...
1) Primary IDE - 20GB Samsung - Ubuntu Linux 4.1

2) Primary SATA - 120GB Seagate - Windows XP Home SP2

3) Secondary SATA - 120GB Seagate - Back-up/Storage.

cheers

chiefnz

**FoxyMX** · 11-08-2005, 09:37 AM

You will have to wait for the Linux experts to dive in and rescue you with this one but if you plonk "Chain loader +1" into Google there are some pages that could be worth a good read.

**Chilling_Silence** · 11-08-2005, 12:20 PM

What's the full entry details you have for WinXP? How have you specified the SATA device?

**apparition** · 11-08-2005, 12:33 PM

I was going to wade in, until the SATA question. Now I'm going to watch this thread for the answer.

**Morgenmuffel** · 11-08-2005, 12:45 PM

Probably not the right answer

but wasn't there an issue with the linux bootloaders if the bios was set to lba instead of auto (or the other way around, or something of that ilk), that linux will boot but windows will fail to boot

was a problem with the 2.6 kernel?

**chiefnz** · 11-08-2005, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by Chilling_Silence

What's the full entry details you have for WinXP? How have you specified the SATA device?

Chill are you referring to the actual entry in the Grub menu for Windows XP?

From memory it says "Windows 2000/XP" I'm not sure as I am at work at the moment... I will post back once I get home.

cheers

chiefnz

**chiefnz** · 11-08-2005, 04:50 PM

Alrighty then the Grub menu has the following entries...

------------------------------------------------------------------
Ubuntu Linux 4.1
Ubuntu Linux 4.1 (Recovery Mode)
Memory Test

OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS:
Windows NT/2000/XP
-------------------------------------------------------------------
When I select Windows XP the following message appears on the screen...

Root (HD1,0)
File System type unknown, partition type 0x7
Savedefault
Makeactive
Chainloader +1

Hope that helps.

cheers
chiefnz

**chiefnz** · 11-08-2005, 05:17 PM

From what I can tell the drives are set as follows...

hd0 ====> Samsung 20GB (Primary IDE)
hd1 ====> Seagate 120GB (1st SATA)
hd2 ====> Seagate 120GB (2nd SATA)

Where do I find the grub.conf file? I can't seem to find it anywhere?

cheers

chiefnz

**Graham L** · 11-08-2005, 06:03 PM

grub.conf is sometimes in /etc, sometimes in a subdirectory in /boot/grub , depending on the distribution.

I suspect the problem might be that it's a SATA drive. I don't know. SATA's not obsolete yet, so I haven't got any.