GRUB not loading Windows

[TheRepublican]

I have Window XP and Red Hat Linux on my machine (finally got the thing to install properly :D ), Windows on a NTFS partition and Linux on ext3. When I boot my machine, I see the GRUB screen, and I can boot into Linux fine. But when I select Windows, it get a read error. I assume that my NTFS partition is corrupted. If I reinstall Windows and reconfigure GRUB, will this be fixed? If not, what to I have to do?

Thanks.

[tabich]

can you post your grub.conf file? perhaps something there isnt quite right. I have seen some issues with the lines in the grub.conf file for loading windows before...

Also, what exactly is the error? can you post that?

[cgkanchi]

I never could get redhat 8.x to load XP properly. I'd recommend booting into the Windows Recovery Console from the CD, typing fixboot and fixmbr and then reading this: http://antionline.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=241021

Cheers,
cgkanchi

[TheRepublican]

Thanks cgkanchi, I might give it a try, but I'm going to see if I can't get GRUB working first.

I'm on a school computer right now, but when I get home I'll post the error and my grub.conf, thanks for reminding me tabich. :)

Basically the error says it can't read from /dev/hda1 (NTFS) and restarts.

I've tried installing RedHat many times (had some trouble with the disks), all of which repartitioned my HD and formatted them. Is it possible that my Windows partition was corrupted? (I didn't tell it to touch /dev/hda1 obviously, but could it have anyways?)

[TheRepublican]

I think I found the problem! My grub.conf file (which I forgot to post, sorry), generated by anaconda, has an entry like this for booting Windows XP:


title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1


but according to the GRUB documentation, it should be:


title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1


I'm gonna have to try this later. Thanks everyone for the help!

[dublix]

Hey Republican, can you post your entire grub.conf file for me? Or send it to me in a pm? My bro is having the exact same problem only he's in SuSE. :(

I know that's not the entire lines that are in yours right? My brothers has a couple of stings and we are trying to add what you have posted here, but were just not sure exactly where you place the strings. Thanks.

.dublix

[TheRepublican]

Be glad to help you out dublix. I'll post it when I get home. I'm not sure if the above solution will work, but I'll let you know. Until then, you can check out the GRUB documentation here (www.gnu.org/software/grub).

/edit: You're right, that is not the entire file, but just the part that triggers the Windows bootloader.

[dublix]

Thanks man, looking forward to it. :)

In the meantime he and I will begin reading GRUB doc's.

Thanks again,

.dublix

[TheRepublican]

Sorry, that method does not work and the man and info pages on GRUB don't give anymore hints. I would recommend Cgkanchi's method, which I am going to end up trying anyhow. My grub.conf file is attached, and I have the error text if there is anymore insight from anyone.


Loading 'DOS'

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Disk read error occured
Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot.


Thanks all.

[dublix]

Thanks Republican, unfortunately it didn't work for us either. :(

I'm going to look into cgkanchi's post I reckon. :D

.dublix