# Dual-Booting Windows XP and RH9 with Grub Bootloader



## syler (Sep 26, 2003)

Ok, I seem to be having this problem where I have two hard drives. My first hard drive has the Windows XP operating system on it. My second hard drive now has the Red Hat Linux 9 operating system on it. So I figured everything would be ok to where I could restart and choose which operating system I'd like to boot. That didn't happen at all. I was presented with the following:

GRUB

That's it. I couldn't type anything and nothing else happened. So, I had to boot from my boot diskette that I created just to get into Linux. I went to the Red Hat Linux Web Support thing, and told them about my problem. They told me some things to do like using Linux Rescue to do the following:

chroot /mnt/sysimage

grub-install /dev/hda --force-lba --recheck

It did it's thing, and I was told to restart after that... but it still didn't work. However, this time... (well it might have been after I tried a few things of my own)... I got the following message when I restarted...

"Grub loading system1.5" 
ERROR 21

It had another line before ERROR 21 but I can't remember what it said, it was something like it had a problem loading or whatever possibly. But anyway that's not the point.

I want to get both of my operating systems running, or at least have my Windows XP operating system running again. Does anyone know what I need to do, or edit, to get everything working again?

I found some how-to's on the web, but nothing they advised me to do worked. I seem to be out of options... please if there is anyone who knows a few things about bootloaders and what not, could you help me out? Thanks! I'll check the forums daily and reply promptly. 

Jason


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## Mithrilhall (Mar 28, 2001)

Ok...to get GRUB off of your mbr (master boot record) reboot your computer and keep hitting F8 until you get presented with a command window. You'll want the repair console if I remember corretly.

fixmbr should clear your mbr and get rid of GRUB
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...technol/winxppro/proddocs/bootcons_fixmbr.asp

Now, use your Linux boot disk and boot into Linux. Install LILO instead of GRUB. I know GRUB has had issues working with certain graphic cards if I remember correctly.


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## Squashman (Apr 4, 2003)

What does your /etc/grub.conf file look like.


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## syler (Sep 26, 2003)

I tried restarting my Hard Drive and pressing F8 several times, but I didn't get a command window. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? Also, I did go through the RH9 installation again and this time chose the LILO bootloader. I restarted and got instead of a "GRUB" line, I got an "L" and that's it. 

Here's what my grub.conf file looks like:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd1,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb2
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-6)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-6 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-6.img
title DOS
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

Jason


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## AbvAvgUser (Oct 3, 2002)

I have read in a magazine the steps involved in uninstalingl Linux and restore your MBR when WinXP is installed. I shall find it out and post the steps.

If you want to restore MBR in a Win98SE system, I think its pretty simple. You only have to type fdisk /mbr at the DOS prompt. But its different with XP.


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## syler (Sep 26, 2003)

Well, I'm finally back to my Windows XP operating system again. I had to go to Windows.com and get a Bootdisk program for it, then reboot the computer and load the 6 disks that it took, and then issue the code fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0 and that fixed the Master Boot Record. But... now to get into Linux I still have to use the Boot disk for it. I'd really rather have it boot into one of the bootloaders so that I could choose which OS I wanted to go in. Anyone else got any ideas?

Thanks,
~Jason


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## Roo (Sep 29, 2003)

Basically you made a mess of grub to start with and that is why you had problems.

The moment you try and hold 2 different O/S on 2 separate drives on 1 box you are really asking for trouble.

What you should have done with redhat 9 and windowsXP is have selected the automatic partition in RH9 installation with grub. at the end you get the chance to create a boot disk which you should do anyway.

LILO is actually outdated and GRUB is always the best option.

If you defrag your disk and try installing again, it will run as smooth as a babies bum  

On a side note, if you have another drive, in the same box, use that as your swap drive when you are in windows.

Hope that helps.

Kind Regards
Roo


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## ohleary (Nov 7, 2003)

I have windows 2000 and redhat 7.1 on 2 seperate drives and it's a piece of cake. I don't know what everyone else is talking about.

install windows on drive 1

install Redhat on drive 2, install lilo as boot loader.

MAKE A BOOT DISK

remember what partition (/dev/hdb5 for example) your root/boot partition is

When redhat is installed, reboot and use boot disk (you just created one right?) to boot into linux. login as root and issue the command:

lilo -v -v

then the command:

dd if=/dev/hdb5 of=/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1

replacing /dev/hdb5 with the location of your / partition.

Then insert a new formatted floppy in and issue:

mcopy /bootsect.lnx a:

now remove the floppy, reboot into windows, reinsert the floppy and copy the bootsect.lnx file to your C drive, or whatever drive contains your windows install, mine is at C:\bootsect.lnx. Next create/edit a file C:\boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows XP" /fastdetect
C:\BOOTSECT.LNX="Linux"

of course replacing information that is particular to your setup, such as if you installed windows on D:\ for some reason. You can also lessen the "timeout=10" if you don't want 10 seconds to wait for an OS to load.

reboot and you should get a menu asking what os you want to load, select linux and you should be booting into linux. don't select anything, and windows will load by default.

Patrick


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## AbvAvgUser (Oct 3, 2002)

To have the boot loader (GRUB/LILO) back, you need to start the Linux Installation. Don't select any packages and go for a minimum installation. That will restore your Boot Loader.

To make it clear, this is what I have recently read in a reputed tech magazine here in India. I have never myself tried to do this.

Also I have heard there is a utility called LoadLin which will help you get back the boot loader. Just check the Linux Installation CD to see if you can find it. It ideally should be under DOS utilities folder.


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## AbvAvgUser (Oct 3, 2002)

Since you already have two Hard Disks, I wonder why should you need a Boot Loader at all. Install both OS on different hard disks and disable one at a time from BIOS; unless, of course you need to transfer data from one OS to another.


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## dedbootloadr (Nov 20, 2003)

Yo, whassup? I googled my way to this thread. I have a problem, I broke my GRUB bootloader. I have 2 hard drives, the first has XP, the second has Red Hat 9. I used Partition Magic (7) to erase my Red Hat drive and make it all NTFS. Anyways, Partition Magic screwed up something, and didn't complete the process. I rebooted and got a screen that says GRUB version 0.93 Minimal BASH-like editing is supported... and it gives me a grub> prompt. Anyways, I threw in my Windows 2000 disk and sucessfully reformatted my seconds hard drive to all NTFS. When the W2K setup was finished it rebooted, but came back to the damn grub> prompt. Anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks.


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## joshua (Nov 20, 2003)

NEVER combine Windows XP and LILO ; lilo will actually damage unitended corefiles of windows . The newest GRUB's are maybe graphical outdated, however, but it works as fine-tuned machine if you leave LILO out of it ! (This option IS presented with Red-Hat ! ) If experiencing too much trouble by beeing new or not understanding Unix platforms; try first SuSe 8.2 - or higher , the YAST center has an 'auto-sensor' build in and will be very happy to combine with the first installed XP (the other way around can present some 'issues' depending on your hardware in general)

The main thing is ; XP and LILO are slight hostile , GRUB is more jentile with Windows' XP. And with (SuSe) KDE-control center you can easily adjust any - SHUTDOWN - window file or seek for undetected viruses. HAVE FUN you'll learn that linux has really 
relaxing features.. Of course first setting up with a 'partition magic 8.0 ' (minimum) can resolve a lot of problems. But remember LILO and XP are not really a good match. 
Though I know there are a lot of experiences showing otherwise, 
but XP is a to nice OS system to go to waist ;-)


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## pifflicated (Dec 28, 2003)

Syler,
Did you get this to work? I am having the EXACT same problem...
I've tried nearly everything that I have been able to find on the net... No joy... I don't think that this is an LBA issue... According to what I have found, LBA should only be a problem in systems that were before 1996 (I'm using a brand new system - just bought it about a week ago). Accoding to my Dell Resource utility, my drives support LBA. I did not see any where in the BIOS to activate LBA, but that is probably because it is not required... I have tried the grub-install --force-lba, but it did not change anything - I suspect that selecting that option during the boot loader configuration will not fix anything either... This really bites and it is leaving a very bad taste in my mouth - I'm beginning to see why Linux has not caught on. It's just a toy. It's just something to play around with, but could never be taken seriously by a business who could not afford to pay a tech guy an entire days wages just trying to figure out how to dual boot a system.


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## McSpadger (Jan 15, 2004)

Hello,

I'm by no means a Linux expert but according to Daniel Jørgensen


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## McSpadger (Jan 15, 2004)

Hi,

from this article :

http://daniel.jorgensen.no/howto.php

"If you're planning on installing Linux on a computer running Windows 2000/XP with the NTFS filesysten you're guaranteed to run into some problems if you're trying to use the LILO-bootloader. The reason to this is that LILO can't read disks formatted with the NTFS filesystem"

so if this guy's right you should never have been using lilo with
XP in the first place !!!!!


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