More trouble than it's worth?

[Apotherix]

Setting up Linux on my machine has not been easy. I'm sure it's something simple, but here's my deal. I've set up Kubuntu on a partition and when I rebooted I got GRUB error 18. which I understand has something to do with boot files on the fist 1000 cylinders or something like that. The problem is this: I would point the OS to the first partition on the C drive but that's where windows is, and I'm trying to set the system to be dual boot.

Here's the setup.

HDA

HDA1 - /windows (30 GB)
HDA2 - / (root folder, 10 GB)
HDA3 - /home (39 GB)
HDA4 - swap space (1 GB)

HDB

HDB1 - files
HDB2 - files
HDB3 - files

HDC

HDC - files

The only problem is now I can't get into Windows to move stuff around because kubuntu took over the boot priority...right now I'm running off the live cd.

Is there any other way to get around the error 18 without destroying my copy of windows in the first partition?

[Detonate]

Re: More trouble than it's worth?

Download and burn Supergrub to a disk. Should be able to manage all your needs with that.

http://freshmeat.net/projects/supergrub/

[Snowhog]

Re: More trouble than it's worth?

Read This Post first. The contents will help you to get your setup right.

[Apotherix]

Re: More trouble than it's worth?

Download and burn Supergrub to a disk. Should be able to manage all your needs with that.

Yeah, only problem is that I'm running off of live cd and I can't burn anything...I'll try the floppy version

edit: and who knows how to copy a file to a floppy in linux??!!

[CacheRAM]

Re: More trouble than it's worth?

I can at least get you back into WinXP again ...

Take out your WinXP CD-ROM, put in drive, reboot.
Begin the install process .. it will come to a point when you can "Press R to run the Recovery Console"
Press r

Log in to the Windows installation -- now you are at the C:\ prompt.
type in fixboot and press enter
remove CD-ROM
reboot -- you got windoze.
Download and burn super grub disk.

Rots a Ruck, Raggy!

[Apotherix]

Re: More trouble than it's worth?

Yeah tried the XP thing, didn't work - it's still kicking me to the kubuntu boot.

edit: I also tried to reinstall the grub thingie like this

grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)

but it gave me an error message telling me it couldn't write the to partition or something like that...crimeny I'm stuck here and I can't get either OS to work! Help!

[CacheRAM]

Re: More trouble than it's worth?

One thing left to try getting you into WinXP --
One you are at the C:\ prompt, type in
fixmbr
fixboot
then reboot again - this _should_ repair the boot sector ...

By the way - is WinXP on the first partition of the drive? How is the drive physically plugged into the mainboard (Primary / secondary,, master/slave ,, SATA)?

[Apotherix]

Re: More trouble than it's worth?

Drives 1 and 2 on the same cable, Primary 1 and 2, and Drive 3 on another...

I'll try the other suggestion on the XP recovery...and yes it is on the first partition, first drive.

[Apotherix]

Re: More trouble than it's worth?

Okay, did fixmbr in the recovery console, and I think it damaged my partition tables because now I can only see the first partition on the C drive and the second HD doesn't even show up. What a nightmare. Maybe I'll wait until I have somebody Linux savvy around to worry about how to mess with all this. I'll admit it, I have no idea what I'm doing.

[CacheRAM]

Re: More trouble than it's worth?

Sorry to hear that, Apotherix
My system is set up as follows:
(PriMstr) hda1 WinXP (old install) (NTFS)

(PriSlv) hdb1 data storage (NTFS)

(SATA1) hdc1 Kubuntu (ext3)
hdc2 WinXP (new install) (NTFS)

(SATA2) hdd1 Linux Swap (swp)
hdd2 Windows swap (NTFS)
hdd3 FAT32 (FAT 32)
hdd4 file archives (NTFS)

When I installed Kububtu, it wrote grub to (hd0) - Primary Master
When I rebooted, I was getting grub error 17. Not knowing how to fix it yet, I ran the recovery disk, and all was well - I could boot back into WinXP (old install) again.
Since I wanted my system to boot up to SATA1, (this drive is faster), I changed my BIOS config to boot to SATA1, and it became the first drive in my system (hd0).
I then installed a new copy of WinXP (this will become the one I use for a Windows environment, but I am keeping the old install until I get the new one fully updated, configured, and ghosted) on second partition of SATA1, (a.k.a. (hd0,1)) , and ran setup for Kubuntu on first partition (hd0,0). Once again, I was getting error 17, but I had done some research, and for some reason, grub was calling SATA1 as (hd2) - I had to edit the line in /boot/grub/menu.lst to be (hd0,0) instead of (hd2,0) - error 17 went away.

Back on topic, I had to use the WinXP recovery console 2 or 3 times before I got things all set right, and each time I used it, the process allowed me to boot to WinXP without problems (it overwrote the boot sector and grub, so all i could boot was WinXP).

I am not sure just what is going wrong on your system - I hope you can get this resolved. I feel kind of bad that following my advice made the situation worse

Wishing you best luck,
-CacheRAM

[penguin.ch]

Re: More trouble than it's worth?

how to copy a file to a floppy

http://www.alwanza.com/howto/linux/floppy.html

[Jay_Jay]

Re: More trouble than it's worth?

Use the repair installation option on the XP CD to restore your Win XP partition to a usable and bootable state.

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repa...sting%20Setup:

It copies over all the OS files required including the boot loader without affecting your documents etc... Always worked for me when I had to deal with corrupted XP installations that wouldn't boot and it should work for you too.

Jay

[Apotherix]

Re: More trouble than it's worth?

Well, now that I can boot to windows, I need to know how to repair the partition tables for the rest of the partitions in order to be able to see them in here and pull files off, etc. The BIOS recognizes all three drives, but here I can only see the first partition of HD1 and then HD3 which only has one partition in it. HD2; and HD1 partitions b and c; do not appear in windows. What can I do to restore recognition of those partitions without destroying the data?