Can't dual boot

Submitted by Andyatfauld on Sun, 06/05/2005 - 15:02. Dual- and Multi-booting
Posts: 1

Help!!!
I installed MEPIS and I can't boot windows!!!
I fitted a new 80Gb maxtor hard drive into my PC and formatted it using XP, NTFS format. I partitioned the drive in two, loaded XP in the first partition and made sure it would run. Everything was fine. I then followed the method in 'Click and point', MEPIS installed OK. I ran GRUB restarted the system and MEPIS loaded fine . The trouble is Grub does NOT recognise the first partition with windows in it, it only recognises hdb1 which has MEPIS . The fact it knows that MEPIS is on hdb1 then somewhere it must know that there is a 'hda'. How can I get GRUB to recognise the first partition? I,m not a programmer but was a PCM mainframe engineer for 20yrs so in can follow instructions as long as there explained and nothing is taken for granted.
Any help will be gratefully received

Thanks
Andy Newton

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I'm a bit confused. If you

Submitted by aysiu on Sun, 06/05/2005 - 15:22.
Posts: 232

I'm a bit confused. If you have one hard drive with two partitions, isn't the hard drive hda for the whole thing? My dual boot config has something like (hda,0) for Windows and (hda,6) for Linux. Can you post up the text in the file /boot/grub/menu.lst?

Also, when you run Mepis, does the Windows partition appear on the desktop? Did it when you ran the live Mepis?

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Easy to solve with more info

Submitted by anticapitalista on Sun, 06/05/2005 - 16:20.
Posts: 849

Firstly don't panic, your windoze is still there, its just that Mepis grub didn't see it. It is easy to solve by configuring your menu.lst file found in root/boot/grub/. Typically you would add something like this to the end of the file:
title Windows at hda1
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
BUT it depends where you have windoze

anticapitalista

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

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Re:Easy to solve with more info

Submitted by Boris on Tue, 06/07/2005 - 02:25.
Posts: 120

Actually the info is provided. Mepis is at hdb1, Windoze is at hda1 (per original post).

Thus *anticommunista* is precisely at the point. Fire up Mepis, go to /boot/grub/ directory, edit menu.lst file just as he suggests, and reboot. You should be able to boot any system of your choice.

BNK (Dr.Cobalt-60)

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wrong name Boris

Submitted by anticapitalista on Tue, 06/07/2005 - 07:41.
Posts: 849

Boris wrote:
"Thus *anticommunista* is precisely at the point"
just to let you know that this isn't my name.
The real one is below.
anticapitalista

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

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Hi all - Andy - I hope

Submitted by mr_moose on Fri, 09/09/2005 - 21:14.
Posts: 62

Hi all -

Andy - I hope the dual-booting is going ok now! Smiling
I'm an "old hand" at the dual-booting thing now, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

I'm about to set up a dual-boot on my PC to make it a dual Linux / OpenBSD machine. Should be fun ... Smiling I'll let this forum know how it goes.

mr_moose

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Hi all, i seem to have the

Submitted by zakk on Thu, 03/16/2006 - 08:29.
Posts: 3

Hi all, i seem to have the same problem as Andy, i don't have the xp dual boot option at startup. I have it at Hda1, only being a Linux newbie i don't seem to be able to find that root/boot/grub folder, i looked in root but i can't see it, can someone please explain me how to do it? Puzzled thanks a lot