Grub not starting Windows

[Scott Talbot]

On Sat, 2004-02-07 at 00:02, antonio montagnani wrote:



> This is the output of command Fdisk....
> 
> 
> Disk /dev/hda: 20.8 GB, 20847697920 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2534 cylinders
> Units = cilindri of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> Dispositivo Avvio Inizio Fine Blocchi Id Sistema
> /dev/hda1 * 1 2534 20354323+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
> 
> Any idea???
> 
> -- 
> 
>  Antonio M.
> 

	Well everything looks O.K. to me.  Usually if GRUB fails when you try
to boot dos you'll get a clear screen with 'GRUB' followed by a cursor.
On the other hand if it is windows loader that fails there will be a
message something to the effect that NT Loader can't be found or
possibly Boot.ini can't be found.

Probably the easiest / safest way to proceed is to:
1) try to re -install GRUB ( grub-install /dev/hda) of course this must
	be done as root.
2) if this doesn't fix the problem there are three possibilities:

The way the boot-up procedure works (IIRC) is that BIOS looks for all
bootable devices and compares them to the list that the original
installer set into its CMOS RAM, it then loads the MBR and executes some
code there (right now on your friend's machine GRUB is there) then it
will load (after selection) the boot record of the partition selected.

So we must assume that either the boot record is broken, or some other
file on the windows partition (Boot.ini?)

If the win2K install disk is booted, you can enter the command 'FDISK
/mbr' (without quotes) note that this will destroy grub and you won't be
able to see fedora, but you should be able to reboot into windows.

after that you must boot into the Linux install disk, and chroot into
your existing Linux partition and then re-install GRUB.

This is probably making your friend very nervous by now. just be sure to
backup any irreplaceable data on each system before each step.

The third way to get windows back if that fails is to reinstall on top
of existing partition. this is a non-destructive install that should
reload all windows files back to the beginning state. you should be able
to get to any data (mp3, mpg etc. I'm not really sure if you will have
to reinstall any apps or not, but i don't think so (i did this once a
few years ago, but had to do a clean install anyway :(  ).

Obviously this also wipes out GRUB and that will need to be reinstalled.

I wish I had better news but I think that this is the only way to go at
this point.  Be sure to have your friend read up on anything he is
unfamiliar with at tldp. for the windows stuff you could have him look
at www.thescreensavers.com they have some good tutorials on reloading
windows (sorry English only).

Good luck!

Scott