Boot Loader Problems

[Scotter]

Hi everyone,

Ok, heres my situation. I have a windows xp pro installation. Yesterday I decided to start using linux, ubuntu to be exact. I took another harddrive and installed linux onto it. Now I have done this before and had a boot loader problem, so this time when I put the new harddrive in I unpluged the power to the harddrive that had XP on it, but apparently I should have removed the IDE cable too or something, because now I cant get into XP at all. I tried removing the Ubuntu harddrive and just having the XP harddrive try and boot, but that doesnt work(XP harddirve was set to Master). Right now my setup is Ubuntu harddrive-Master, XP harddrive-Slave. I tried using the recovery console of my XP install disk, but it says my administrator password is wrong, but im a solid 99.999% sure its right. So Im wondering if something else is wrong. BTW I can run ubuntu fine, and I can open the disk with XP on it, and all my files are there, so it wasnt formated or anything like that. Im pretty sure its the boot loader, but I'm not sure how i can get it back on there. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated here.

Thanks,
Scotter

[epots9]

moved from the articles to the forum

[Scotter]

Ok, I'm to the point now where if i take the linux harddrive out, and just have the XP one, I can boot. But I cannot get grub to do a duel boot.

Here is fdisk-l

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        4678    37576003+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2            4679        4865     1502077+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5            4679        4865     1502046   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1           5       40131   de  Dell Utility
/dev/sdb2   *           6        4862    39013852+   7  HPFS/NTFS

Here is device.map

(hd0)	/dev/hda
(hd1)	/dev/hdb

And here is my menu.lst

title		Windows XP Pro
map 		(hd0) (hd1)
map 		(hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify 	(hd1,1)
chainloader	+1
boot
savedefault

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic
root		(hd0,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=7f92000a-c129-4cd9-bf42-62bb7010619d ro quiet splash
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic
boot
quiet



title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic (recovery mode)
root		(hd0,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=7f92000a-c129-4cd9-bf42-62bb7010619d ro single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic
boot

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic
root		(hd0,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=7f92000a-c129-4cd9-bf42-62bb7010619d ro quiet splash
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic
boot
quiet

title		Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic (recovery mode)
root		(hd0,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=7f92000a-c129-4cd9-bf42-62bb7010619d ro single
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic
boot

title		Ubuntu, memtest86+
root		(hd0,0)
kernel		/boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

My XP harddisk has a utility partition, so thats why its (hd1,1) im pretty sure thats right.... Anything is greatly appreciated!

[Nepomuk]

Try editing /boot/grub/menu.lst and change

title      Windows XP Pro
map         (hd0) (hd1)
map         (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify    (hd1,1)
chainloader +1
boot
savedefault

to

title     Windows XP Pro
root      (sd1,1)
makeactive
chainloader   +1

if Windows is on the slave drive. You may have to change the entry after "root", if Windows isn't on sdb1 (second drive -> 1, first partition -> 0).

Greetings,
Nepomuk

[Scotter]

Try editing /boot/grub/menu.lst and change

root      (sd1,1)

if Windows is on the slave drive. You may have to change the entry after "root", if Windows isn't on sdb1 (second drive -> 1, first partition -> 0).

Hi nepomuk, I tried that and got the error parsing number. If I change "sd1,1" to "hd1,1" then theres no error, but it cannot find the selected disk. Also i tried "hd1,0", "hd1,1", "hd1,2", and "hd1,3" just in case, but still it couldn't find the selected disk. Any ideas of why its not working? Also I'm not sure if I'm correct in this or not, but in device.map if it says;

(hd0) /dev/sda
(hd1) /dev/sdb

doesn't sda mean it has a serial interface? and hda means parallel interface? because both my hard drives are IDE.... but thats just a thought.

thanks,
scotter

[Nepomuk]

Hi nepomuk, I tried that and got the error parsing number. If I change "sd1,1" to "hd1.1" then there's no error, but it cannot find the selected disk. Also I tried hd1,0-3 just in case, but still it couldn't find the selected disk. Any ideas of why its not working?

scotter

Could your slave drive be sd0? What is the partition with windows called, when Ubuntu is booted up?

Greetings,
Nepomuk

[Scotter]

ok, im not sure if i understand what your saying there, but ubuntu has (hd0,0) set as the root, If thats what you were wondering. Its like it doesnt recognize the second hard drive at all...

[Nepomuk]

ok, im not sure if i understand what your saying there, but ubuntu has (hd0,0) set as the root, If thats what you were wondering. Its like it doesnt recognize the second hard drive at all...

What is the output of

ls /dev/sd*

then? Could your second harddrive be formated with NTFS by any chance?

Greetings,
Nepomuk

[Scotter]

Ok, this is what ls /dev/sd* gives me

/dev/sda  /dev/sda1  /dev/sda2  /dev/sda5  /dev/sdb  /dev/sdb1  /dev/sdb2

and yes, my xp drive is ntfs.

Thanks,
Scotter

[Nepomuk]

Ok, this is what ls /dev/sd* gives me

/dev/sda  /dev/sda1  /dev/sda2  /dev/sda5  /dev/sdb  /dev/sdb1  /dev/sdb2

and yes, my xp drive is ntfs.

Thanks,
Scotter

OK, Ubuntu will not recognize your drive, until you install NTFS drivers - these are not 100% functional, but work most of the time.
Ubuntu recognizes the presence of two special devices, one of them with 3 Partitions, one with two. Do you have a USB Stick, more than one SATA drive, a Flash Card Reader or similar in your computer? How many partitions does the drive with windows have?

Also, try using sd0.0 instead of hd1.0. That might do the job.

Greetings,
Nepomuk

[Scotter]

OK, Ubuntu will not recognize your drive, until you install NTFS drivers - these are not 100% functional, but work most of the time.
Ubuntu recognizes the presence of two special devices, one of them with 3 Partitions, one with two. Do you have a USB Stick, more than one SATA drive, a Flash Card Reader or similar in your computer? How many partitions does the drive with windows have?

Also, try using sd0.0 instead of hd1.0. That might do the job.

Greetings,
Nepomuk

Ok, i guess first of all where do i get ntfs drivers? Basically all that I have is 2 cd drives, 2 hard drives, and a usb scanner attached. My xp drive has a utility partition on it as well as the xp partition. And the Ubuntu harddrive was blank when I installed ubuntu on it, so that should be everything on it. Unless when I updated ubuntu, would that make the extra sd?

When you say "use sd0.0 instead of hd1.0" do you mean in menu.lst? because when i do that it doesnt boot, and it says error parsing number.

Thanks,
Scotter

[Nepomuk]

Ok, i guess first of all where do i get ntfs drivers? Basically all that I have is 2 cd drives, 2 hard drives, and a usb scanner attached. My xp drive has a utility partition on it as well as the xp partition. And the Ubuntu harddrive was blank when I installed ubuntu on it, so that should be everything on it. Unless when I updated ubuntu, would that make the extra sd?

When you say "use sd0.0 instead of hd1.0" do you mean in menu.lst? because when i do that it doesnt boot, and it says error parsing number.

Thanks,
Scotter

You can get ntfs drivers, by starting Synaptic and searching for NTFS. That's useful, when you want to access the Windows drive when under Ubuntu, but it shouldn't be relevant here.

Next, I guess one or both of your Harddrives are SATA drives, correct? (That means, they are connected to the mainboard with a plug, which is probably a bit broader than one finger instead of the size of three fingers.)

If so, the Harddrives will be /dev/sda and /dev/sdb while /dev/hda and /dev/hdb will be the CD drives.

Next, I guess that your Linux drive has three partitions (root, swap and home maybe?) and your Windows drive has two.

What does

sudo fdisk -l

give you? (That's a small 'L', not a big 'i'.)

Greetings,
Nepomuk

[Scotter]

Ok, fdisk -l gives

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        4678    37576003+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2            4679        4865     1502077+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5            4679        4865     1502046   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1           5       40131   de  Dell Utility
/dev/sdb2   *           6        4862    39013852+   7  HPFS/NTFS

And this is what I was wondering about earlier, I don't think i worded it correctly tho. My hard drives are IDE, not serial. Both of them use the wide ribbon connector.

As far as accessing NTFS volumes, I can access anything on the other hard drive from the Ubuntu hard drive, so I'm assuming that there shouldn't be any problems there...

Thanks,
Scotter

[Nepomuk]

Ok, fdisk -l gives

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        4678    37576003+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2            4679        4865     1502077+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5            4679        4865     1502046   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1           5       40131   de  Dell Utility
/dev/sdb2   *           6        4862    39013852+   7  HPFS/NTFS

And this is what I was wondering about earlier, I don't think i worded it correctly tho. My hard drives are IDE, not serial. Both of them use the wide ribbon connector.

As far as accessing NTFS volumes, I can access anything on the other hard drive from the Ubuntu hard drive, so I'm assuming that there shouldn't be any problems there...

Thanks,
Scotter

Ah, just saw, you posted that earlier too. Well, doesn't matter.
The drives being IDE surprises me just as much as you, but I guess, it won't matter.
Have you tried replacing your entry

title      Windows XP Pro
map         (hd0) (hd1)
map         (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify    (hd1,1)
chainloader +1
boot
savedefault

in the menu.lst with a simple

title     Windows XP Pro
root      (hd1,1)
makeactive
chainloader   +1

?

By the way, do you actually need that Dell Utilities Partition?

Greetings,
Nepomuk

[Scotter]

Yeah I thought that was odd, but anyways. I just tried that, but it still comes up with cannot find specified disk, or disk does not exist, something along thoose lines.

Yes if at all possible I would like to keep the utilities partition.

Any other ideas?

Scotter