Ubuntu
grub package

Cannot boot XP from GRUB

Asked by Thomas Novin

Hello!

I have a XP installation on /dev/sda1 which I canot boot from GRUB.

This is what my partition table looks like:

Disk /dev/sda: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders, total 195371568 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd81cd81c

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 22523129 11261533+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 22523130 23069339 273105 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 23069340 195366464 86148562+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 23069403 27165914 2048256 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 27165978 59938514 16386268+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 59938578 182900024 61480723+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 182900088 195366464 6233188+ 83 Linux

I have tried these two entries from GRUB:

title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive

None of them works, they both do the same thing, they give me an error which is just circa 8-10 strange characters.

If I do a FIXMBR and FIXBOOT from the XP install CD the computer won't boot, it just starts then I have a emtpy screen with a blinking '_' on the top left. I have then reinstalled GRUB using this method:

root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0)

I first tried 'setup (hd0,1)' but it didn't have any effect.

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Tyro (ffnodig224) said : 		#1

If I understand correctly, you first installed XP and secondly, on your D: partition your Linux. If this is tru, then try this (alongside your normal Linux option off course):

title Windows XP
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

Revision history for this message
Thomas Novin (thomasn80) said : 		#2

No, Ubuntu is installed on /dev/sda5 (and /dev/sda2 is /boot). D: would be a second FAT[16,32] partition or a NTFS partition which I do not have.

I have already tried that exact entry but it fails with error mentioned above. I just missed pasting that last row, chainloader + 1.

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Tyro (ffnodig224) said : 		#3

It is strange to me that your dev/sda 1 (which is your boot disk), does not start at 1 but at 63. Anything else installed as alternative bootloader?

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Thomas Novin (thomasn80) said : 		#4

Yes, I have also noticed that. Seems strange! I created all the partitions in gparted. Googling on the issue with sector 63 gives me this bug:

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=380226

And indeed, I have resized my primary NTFS partition. The PC came preinstalled with XP but I didn't want that so I resized it to 12GB so it wouldn't take so much space.

I will see if I can resize it in some way to start from sector 1 or else I will dump all data of the disk to a spare disk, re-create all partitions and then copy back all the data.

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Wyatt Smith (wyatt-smith) said : 		#5

If you reinstallled windows boot loader with fixmbr and fixboot and windows still would not boot, that would indicate that there is a problem with you windows installation and not grub.

Your windows installation could have been damaged during the resizing of that partition. I would recommend trying to repair you windows install. You might also give TestDisk a try. If worst comes to worst and you are unable to repair, you may to reinstall windows.

As far as the bug that you indicated, I believe that is related to Vista only. Vista utilizes two partition tables and debian resizers are unable to the second partition table and are unable to edit it. Resizing of Vista partitions must be performed through Vistas disk management tool.

Hope this helps

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